娱乐英语新闻:"The Help" ruled North America box office for third weekend

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- "The Help," a Walt Disney Co. - released DreamWorks period drama, became one of the few bright spots as the summer box office drew to a close, managing to remain victorious for three weekends in a row, while three debuts ranked among the top five most popular films of the weekend, projected statistics provided by studios on Sunday show.

A drama based on Kathryn Stockett's runaway bestseller about a young white woman's relationship with two black maids during Civil Rights era America in early 1960s, "The Help" grossed an estimated 14.2 million U.S. dollars in movie ticket sales over the weekend, or 18 million dollars for the four-day Labor Day holiday, and is on track for a 122.4 million dollar-cumulative gross for four weeks.

The film registered a mere three percent drop from last weekend, a decent achievement for any film when around 1,000 movie theaters on the Eastern Coast were forced to close down when Hurricane Irene was wreaking havoc last weekend, and attendance was negatively impacted. The film is produced by DreamWorks Entertainment and Participant Media for 25 million dollars.

Poster of "The Help"

"The Debt," an adult drama-thriller from the Focus Features and Miramax, debuted in the number two spot, with an estimated 9.7 million dollars in weekend sales, or 12.2 million dollars for the four-day holiday. It actually started showings on Wednesday, and has a cumulative gross of 14.1 million dollars over six days. Directed by John Madden and stars Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington and Tom Wilkinson, the thriller is a remake of the 2007 Israeli film of the same name.

"Apollo 18," a low-budget, found footage sci-fi thriller directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego and released by Dimension Films, debuted in the third spot, garnering 8.7 million dollars in ticket receipts during the Friday-Sunday period. The film costs only 5 million dollars to make, and is male skew, as 59 percent of the audience is male while 64 percent were over the age of 25. However, moviegoers gave it a dismal D rating, which means that this is not a crowd-pleasing fare.

"Shark Night," a 3-D horror-thriller film from Incentive Filmed Entertainment and Sierra/Affinity, directed by David R. Ellis,also debuted in fourth spot with 8.6 million dollars. "Rise Of the Planet Of The Apes," now five weeks in screening, is in fifth with 7.8 million dollars. The Fox sci-fi film has grossed 160 million dollars.

Rounding out the top 10 most popular films in North America box office over the weekend, are:

"Colombiana" (7.4 million dollars), "Our Idiot Brother" (5.2 million dollars), "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" (4.9 million dollars),"Spy Kids 4: All The Time In The World" (4.6 million dollars) and "The Smurfs" (4 million dollars).