It’s going to be a slow Labor Day weekend, so expect a low haul over these next three days. With summer 2011 coming to a close, it looks like once again The Help will be the victor. If that’s the case, then the dramedy will be the first 2011 release to finish in first place for three consecutive weekends. Mind you, when it opened the weekend of August 12-14 it finished $1.8 million below that weekend’s first place finisher Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Outside of first place, #2 – #5 of the top ten will be some combination of Apollo 18, Shark Night 3D, The Debt and Columbiana. The found footage feature and the cheap 3D release had Friday estimates of $2.8 million each, but the Cold War thriller The Debt is right on their heels. Helping the spy pic is its Wednesday opening where it had a $1 million debut. Also worth noting, this weekend will see an early public sneak preview of Lionsgate’s Warrior on Sunday night, while Disney is doing one last push for Cars 2 by rolling it out onto 1800 more screens this last week of summer.
Full report coming on Monday.
