Tops at the Box Office: Contagion spreads to #1, The Help holds strong

1. Contagion- $23.1M
This seemed like the logical week for a film to finally knock The Help off it's three-week long perch, with Contagion combing star power and a rarely seen disaster sub-genre. Contagion opened at over 3200 theaters, including over 250 in IMAX. The viral epidemic film is one we've seen used in various forms mostly through zombie flicks like Resident Evil and 28 Days Later, but it hasn't truly been represented in quite some time. Not since 1995's Outbreak, which went on to gross over $180M worldwide. For Soderbergh, this is his biggest debut since Ocean's 13($36M).

2. The Help- $8.69M $137M
After nearly a month on top, The Help tumbled 40% from last week, which was still more than enough to hold on to #2. It's not going away anytime soon, folks.
3. Warrior- $5.61M
Ouch. Lionsgate has been putting all of their marketing muscle behind this MMA brawler featuring two of Hollywood's fastest rising leading men in Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. But somewhere they dropped the ball, because this debut is far below expectations. Especially when you consider that just last year The Fighter was such a heavyweight presence. Perhaps there were too many advance screenings, blunting the audience and making the film feel less special? Word of mouth has been extremely positive, so that's the only explanation I can come up with.
4. The Debt- $4.9M/$22M
5. Colombiana- $4M/$29.8M
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes- $3.88M/$168M
7. Shark Night 3D- $3.53M/$14.8M
8. Apollo 18- $2.91M/$15M
9. Our Idiot Brother- $2.76M/$21.4M
Based solely on the likability of Paul Rudd, this film has turned into something of a minor hit.
10. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World-$2.51M/$34.2M