'Extract,' 'All About Steve' debut, 'Inglourious Basterds' triumphs on Labor Day weekend movie chart

September 6, 3:32 PMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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Several high-profile films debuted over Labor Day weekend, but Nazi-killing soldiers and quarantined aliens continued to be the biggest stories in cineplexes. Dropping a mere single spot on the box-office chart, the Quentin Tarantino pic Inglourious Basterds ascended to the top of the AME weekend movie chart** on the strength of stellar reviews and outstanding word of mouth (8.7 IMDB user rating, No. 1 among the box-office top 20), with District 9 close behind.

The week’s highest debut belonged to Director Mike Judge, who made his first foray back to the workplace since 1999’s cult favorite Office Space. Extract, starring Jason Bateman, bowed to respectable reviews (64 tomatometer, No. 9) and audience response (7.4 IMDB score, also No. 9). Box office was modest, with the comedy scrounging up $4.2 million. In other words, it’s too early to tell whether Miramax execs will be taking any baseball bats to office equipment.

The stalkerazzi comedy All About Steve made a frighteningly funny debut—for all the wrong reasons. The Sandra Bullock vehicle ranked dead last among critics, registering a dreadful 5 tomatometer tally, and audiences were creeped out as well, scoring the pic only 4.8 at IMDB. Sadly, $11.2 million in receipts were rung up by this clunker, good for No. 2 at the box office.

Elsewhere, Gerard Butler failed to bounce back from the unseemly reaction to this summer’s The Ugly Truth, as the action thriller Gamer debuted to similarly dismal response. Its metacritic score of 20 bested only All About Steve, though filmgoers were slightly more engaged, grading it a 7.0 (No. 12) thus far at IMDB. The flick took in an even $9 million, good for No. 4 at the box office.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and (500) Days of Summer each enjoyed their eighth consecutive week on the AME chart, dropping only 26 percent and 10 percent at the box office, respectively. (500) Days has been a particularly compelling success story, as the indie romance has rode superb word of mouth (8.5 IMDB) to a $28 million box-office tally—against a mere $7.5 million budget.

The Labor Day AME weekend movie chart for Sept. 4-6, 2009:

1) Inglourious Basterds (2)

2) District 9 (1)

3T) Up (3T)

3T) Julie & Julia (4T)

5) (500) Days of Summer (3T)

6) Ponyo (3T)

7) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (7)

8) Extract (NR)

9) The Hangover (9)

10T) The Time Traveler’s Wife (10)

10T) The Final Destination (NR)

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3) District 9, Inglourious Basterds duke it out for weekend movie crown as The Final Destination debuts

**Tired of reading about the latest dumb action flick, lame gross-out comedy or played-out torture porn horror pic that took home the box office crown? Wish the media balanced screaming headlines about box office winners with more stories about “the top reviewed films” or the “films audiences loved the most”?

I’m with ya. And that’s why I’ve devised a new ranking system (see list above) that combines critics’ reviews, audience response and, yes, box office to deliver a comprehensive list of what’s hot in theaters in each weekend. (The previous week’s chart position is listed in parentheses after the film title.)