Sony’s late-summer event picture Gran Turismo topped the weekend box office race with a $17.3 million domestic opening, a muted start for a movie based on a popular video game.

The hope now is that A CinemaScore from audiences will provide a turbo boost in the days to come.

Directed by Neil Blomkamp, the racing pictire had been set to launch nationwide on Aug. 11 but switched gears because of the actors strike and the resulting prohibition on the cast — led by Orlando Bloom and David Harbour — doing any press. The studio instead hosted two weekends of sneaks and a handful of fan screenings to build buzz before opening the movie everywhere on Aug. 25.

 

 

The opening number includes hefty $3.9 million in grosses from those previous sneaks. It’s not the first time that Hollywood studio has added such grosses to an opening weekend number, but the early Gran Turismo screenings were more robust than is the norm.

Barbie, which has now earned an estimated $594.9 million domestically–would have been assured of topping the weekend chart.

Saturday estimates showed Barbie earning $15.7 million from 3,736 locations in its sixth weekend, but Warners bumped up that number to $17.1 million by Sunday morning.

Monday actuals will determine the official order.

Box office analysts caution that numbers for all films could shift between now and then because of Sunday’s second annual National Cinema Day when tickets will cost only $4 at thousands of cinemas across the country.

Overseas, Gran Turismo grew its foreign tally to a sluggish $36.5 million from 61 markets for early global cume of $53.8 million.

Meanwhile, Barbie earned another $18.2 million from 75 markets for a foreign tally of $745.5 million and stunning $1.34 billion globally.

DC’s Blue Steel slotted third place in North America with an estimated $12.8 million from 3,871 locations in its second outing for a domestic total of $46.3 million. That’s a decline of just 49 percent. Overseas, the superhero pic earned another $10 million from 70 markets for a foreign tally of $35.5 million and a disappointing $81.8 million globally.

In yet another milestone, Oppenheimer has passed up Inception to become Chris Nolan’s third-highest-grossing film at the domestic box office behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, not adjusted for inflation.

Oppenheimer also continues to do big business overseas, grossing another $29.1 million for a foreign total of $477.1 million — that’s ahead of The Dark Knight‘s $471 million — and global haul of $777.1 million.

Several indie titles made a play this weekend at the U.S. box office as summer speeds toward the finish line.