Monday final:
The typically slow Labor Day holiday sent this summer's record box-office season out in lukewarm fashion, with three new entries generating unspectacular numbers, while some longterm holdovers, including "Transformers" and "District 9" passed some key benchmarks.
The full four-day weekend was led by Warner/New Line's second-week horror holdover "The Final Destination," a $40 million 3D film that generated $15.8 million at 3,121 locations. With $51 million banked domestically so far, it's by far the best start in the nine-year, four-film history of the "Final Destination" franchise.
Coming in second was the Weinstein-distributed "Inglourious Basterds." Quentin Tarantino's Nazi-hunting film added $14.4 million to its domestic bounty over the weekend, bringing its North American total to $94.6 million. Weinstein and its financing partner on the project, Universal, have already received $174 million oversees from "Basterds."
Among new entrants, Fox's PG-13-rated comedy "All About Steve" starring Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper finished in third place, generating $13.8 million over the four-day weekend in 2,251 locations.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate thriller "Gamer," starring Gerard Butler and penned by the "Crank" screenwriting team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor also lived up to middling pre-release expectations, taking in $11.2 million at 2,502 venues.
One other new release, Miramax's decidedly niche Mike Judge comedy "Extract," finished in 10th place with $5.3 million at 1,611 sites.
While the overall returns this weekend weren't spectacular -- they were down 12 percent from Labor Day 2008 at $114.7 million overall, according to one studio's tally -- the four days did see some of the films that keyed this summer's record revenue run pass some important domestic benchmarks.
Paramount's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," for example, trickled in another $1 million over the four days, finishing the summer with $400.7 million in North America.
Having generated $428.6 million oversees and $829 million globally, Michael Bay's second "Transformers" movie completed the season trailing only Warner's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which is now closing in on $900 million worldwide.
Also hitting nice round numbers over the weekend was Sony's "District 9," which with $9 million in receipts over the four-day weekend, has now generated $103.3 million domestically. Sony spent just $25 million to license the Peter Jackson-produced film in North America and a bunch of key international territories.
Here's how the top 10 looked for the entire four-day period:
1.) The Final Destination ($15.8 mil.)
2.) Inglourious Basterds ($14.4 mil.)
3.) All About Steve ($13.8 mil.)
4.) Gamer ($11.2 mil.)
5.) District 9 ($9.0 mil.)
6.) Halloween II ($7.3 mil.)
7.) Julie and Julia (7 mil.)
8.) G.I. Joe ($6.7 mil.)
9.) The Time Traveler's Wife ($5.6 mil.)
10.) Extract ($5.3 mil.)
Sunday update:
Three new movies entered the box office ring this weekend, and none of them could topple last week's champ.
Warner/New Line 3D horror film "The Final Destination" stayed on top with $12.4 million for the three days, according to studio estimates.
That means the three major new entrants had relatively feeble starts: "All About Steve" ($11.2
