Los Angeles ? The Internet buzz over “Snakes on a Plane” turned out to be nothing to hiss about.

The high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $15.25 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Distributor New Line Cinema included $1.4 million that “Snakes on a Plane” raked in during 10 p.m. screenings Thursday to get a head start on the weekend. Without those revenues, the movie’s weekend total would be $13.85 million, putting it just behind “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” which took in $14.1 million in its third weekend.

David Tuckerman, New Line’s head of distribution, said it was customary for studios to include late-night previews in a movie’s opening-weekend total.

Rory Bruer, head of distribution at “Talladega Nights” studio Sony, declined to comment.

Starring Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver obsessed with winning, the comedy “Talladega Nights” was No. 1 at the box office the previous two weekends.

With its campy, tell-it-like-it-is title and the star power of lead actor Samuel L. Jackson, “Snakes on a Plane” became an online phenomenon, prompting endless Web chat and parodies long before anyone saw the movie.

That buzz proved fairly hollow when it came to showtime, with the debut weekend a respectable but unremarkable return for a movie with a production budget of just over $30 million.

The movie stars Jackson as an FBI agent battling killer snakes that have been put on a red-eye flight to do away with a witness about to testify in a murder trial.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

1. “Snakes on a Plane,” $15.25 million.

2. “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” $14.1 million.

3. “World Trade Center,” $10.8 million.

4. “Accepted,” $10.1 million.

5. “Step Up,” $9.9 million.

6. “Barnyard: The Original Party Animals,” $7.5 million.

7. “Little Miss Sunshine,” $5.7 million.

8. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” $5 million.

9. “Material Girls,” $4.6 million.

10. “Pulse,” $3.5 million.