Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison is independent and very smart, but her Annapurna Pictures has dug itself into a hole. This weekend’s release of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” was the last straw, with just $3.4 million taken in over three days. It’s a bust.

“Bernadette” follows a string of failures, most of them better reviewed than “Bernadette” but none of them commercial successes. This is all since Megan decided to become her own distributor and not partner up on her quality releases. And she’s had them, too, with “Zero Dark Thirty,” “American Hustle,” and so on.

Deadline.com reports now that Megan’s dad, Larry, founder of Oracle software, and a massive billionaire, is paying off Annapurna’s debuts of over $200 million setting the ship right. No, not everyone can do this when their business founders. Indeed, most companies would file for bankruptcy. But Larry won’t let that happen to his daughter. And $200 million is a drop in the bucket for him. So it’s all good.

But Annapurna has to take a look at what’s happened here. They’ve had some huge failures, like “The Sisters Brothers.” They had a chance with “Booksmart,” and blew it. Two summers ago they just dumped Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit” instead of waiting for Oscar season. Another colossal disaster. Annapurna has suffered from no PR and no marketing. Instead of attracting press, they repel it. That’s got to change. Megan Ellison has to get some smart people into the office, ones to whom she’ll listen. Then Annapurna can rise from the ashes of this chapter.

I promised this headline, so here it is: Where’d ya go, Bernadette? Richard Linklater’s comedy starring Cate Blanchett, based on a best selling book, scored just $3.4 million this weekend. It’s the lowest Linklater opening, it’s pretty low for Blanchett, a two time Oscar winner.

Linklater’s oeuvre is indie films, but for an indie film in wide release, “Bernadette” is a disaster. It’s a disaster we knew was coming, however. Originally scheduled for last winter, “Bernadette” was held and supposedly tweaked. But the damage was done.

Rotten Tomatoes has it 43%. Annapurna Pictures, which can’t get out of its own way, held the premiere way downtown, stealthily. Their August release date for a Blanchett-Linklater film signaled anyone who cared that this was not a festival or prestige film. “Bernadette” was dumped.

At least Annapurna’s other recent failure, “Booksmart,” made $22 million. “Bernadette” will not get that far. Annapurna, now releasing as United Artists Releasing, has released four films this year and taken it a total of $104 million. They’re waiting, I guess, for the MGM James Bond film, set for next spring. But by that time their staplers will be empty and they’ll have to dog ear memos without paper clips.

Could “Bernadette” have been saved? A Hail Mary pass might be bringing it to Toronto, and launching Cate into a thin (so far) Best Actress crowd, made a big deal at the Gotham Awards (where Cate and Richard would have been hailed as heroes). But Annapurna is marketing-and-publicity-free. No effort was better than anything else, I guess.

The Friday box office offered only good news to Universal Pictures, which has the number 1 and 2 films. “Good Boys” scored $8.3 million including Thursday previews. “Hobbes and Shaw” aka Fast and Furious did $3.8 million, kicking it up to $123.4 million after 8 days. So their Universe is happy.

But Warner Bros. can’t be too thrilled with “Blinded by the Light.” They put a lot into the Bruce Springsteen-themed feature, and even backed it up by buying Bruce’s “Western Stars” music film pre-Toronto. They went all in on Bruce, which we love. But Bruce’s fans didn’t turn out last night for “Blinded.” It’s DOA with $3 million for the weekend, $1.3 million last night.

I haven’t seen it, but “Blinded” sounded a lot like “Yesterday,” which is wrapping up a big $70 million run.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is still spinning its fable about fabled Tinseltown. Should finish the weekend with $112 million. That’s still $8 million away from “Inglorious Basterds,” which finished with $120 million. “Hollywood” will not exceed Tarantino’s biggest, “Django Unchained,” at $162 million.

We knew “Where’d You Go Bernadette?” would bomb, and it did. Sad to say because it’s Richard Linklaker and Cate Blanchett. Annapurna Pictures stealths under the rubic United Artists Releasing now, but it’s Megan Ellison’s company nevertheless. They’re still smarting from “Booksmart,” which at least made $22 million. “Bernadette” will be lucky to scoop up half of that. This poor movie was never right from the beginning, so now it’s just being put out of its misery. On to bigger things!

Peter Fonda has died from lung cancer today at age 79. It was only last month that his cornerstone movie, “Easy Rider,” celebrated its 50th anniversary. Fonda wrote it (with Terry Southern and Dennis Hopper) and directed it, and most importantly conceived “Easy Rider.” Ironically, it premiered three weeks before the Manson murders.

And even though it’s not mentioned in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Easy Rider” is the movie that represents the world that Rick (Leonardo di Caprio) and Cliff (Brad Pitt) see taking their place. Fonda — maybe in a quest to impress his movie star father, Henry — took a sledgehammer to the Hollywood establishment. Nothing would ever be the same.

Peter never stopped working after the success and upheaval caused by “Easy Rider.” He starred in and directed a lost gem called “The Hired Hand.” Like “Easy Rider,” it was partly designed to establish himself in Hollywood, and not just a little to impress Henry. (After all, sister Jane was just then winning her first Oscar, for “Klute.”) He wrote on Twitter earlier this summer: “My father wept when he saw The Hired Hand. Can’t get a better review than that.”

Over the years, Peter never stopped working, and went from film to film. His two outstanding performances in later years were in Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey,” and in Victor Nunez’s “Ulee’s Gold,” for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He won the Golden Globe for that performance, and was nominated for a SAG Award, as well.

Like Wyatt, Peter Fonda was himself the epitome of cool. He was just like his sister, Jane, and father: articulate, funny, and really smart. He was also incredibly generous. Back around 2001, I wanted to interview Richard Widmark, a Hollywood legend. No one had talked to him in a while and he was living in Connecticut with his second wife, Susan Blanchard. By coincidence, Susan had been the third wife of Henry Fonda. Peter considered her his mother (his and Jane’s mother, Frances Seymour, had committed suicide when they were young.) Peter called Susan on my behalf, and soon I was in Richard Widmark’s living room. I’ll never be able to thank him enough.

Peter’s death is certainly untimely and way too soon. He was planning a big 50th anniversary concert and screening at Radio City Music Hall next month. Last May he was invited to Cannes for the anniversary as well. He’s part of an all star cast this October in a film called “The Last Full Measure.” And of course he leaves a devastated family including sister Jane and daughter Bridget. I will really miss running into him “on the circuit,” where he was always grinning, expansive, full of stories, and laughs. He will be sorely missed.