The Labor Day holiday across the pond seems like the perfect time for a film about workers struggling for more rights, and so it was: The Help stayed atop the charts, and is now the first three-peat since Inception last year, and added $19 million for an impressive running total of $123.3 million.And the returning champ thrashed a trio of wide-release new arrivals jockeying for position this weekend, with thesp-heavy drama thriller The Debt winning out with $12.5 million in second place. The film, which features the likes of Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson, beat out Astro-horror Apollo 18 (third with $10.7 million) and toothy terror Shark Night 3D (fourth and $10.3 million). Rise of the Planet of the Apes finally began to sink down the charts, rounding out the top five with $10.2 million.
In sixth place, revenge action thriller Colombiana made $9.4 million, while Our Idiot Brother sank to seventh with $7 million. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World was eighth with $6.6 million and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark scared up $6.1 million in ninth. At 10th we find The Smurfs, with $5.6 million this weekend and $133.5 million in total.(EMPIRE ONLINE)
