News, News, News: Box Office, New Clip for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Labor Day weekend was a pretty big one for The Help. It remained in the top spot for the third weekend in row, earning $19 million and lifting its total to $123.3 million. The last film to do that was Inception last year. It was pretty obvious of a win. I also have to mention that Rise of the Planet of the Apes not only rounded out the top five with $10.2 million, but it became one of August's top earners of all time. Now to the new releases.

Focus Features and Miramax's The Debt took the second spot with $12.5 million, doing even better than they expected. It brought more older moviegoers (70 percent of the audience was age 40 and over) and brought its amount to $14.4 million since its Wednesday debut. It was better than the $12 million earned by another Focus feature, The Constant Gardener, back in 2005. What I'm predicting is that with good reviews (which include mine) and good word-of-mouth (B on Cinemascore), it could gross more than people might be predicting. It might not get the same numbers as The Help, but still.

Two horror flicks had modest debuts: Apollo 18 came in third, taking in $10.7 million while Shark Night 3D brought $10.3 million, slightly edging out Apes for the fourth spot. Audiences didn't really enjoy both films with Cinemascore reporting SN3D got a grade of C and Apollo getting a grade of D. As modest as they were, Apollo 18 had the weakest launch for a "found-footage" film while Shark wasn't as big as last year's Piranha 3D.

While it might not be what The Weinstein Company were predicting, the movie only cost $5 million to make, so there's no worrying for them. However for Relativity, they should be hoping Shark Night grosses as much as Piranha or it'll be a box office disappointment. On Sunday night, Lionsgate showed nationwide sneaks of their MMA drama, Warrior, before it hits theatres this Friday, and those sneaks proved strong.

The first clip for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has gone online and it nice to see a role where Mark Strong has some hair. It recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and is making its way to the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts this Thursday. Hopefully, I'm there. The film hits the UK on September 16th and in North America December 9th.