Weekend Summary: The Help eases 2% while second week newcomers can't hit number 1.

Weekend Summary: The Help stays seated in its throne

The Help   holds its seat again, ousting any newcomers from the top seat. Easing only 2%, the Help earned an estimated $14.2 million, lifting its total to $118.6 million in 26 days.  At this point, a $150 million domestic cume looks very plausible.

The Debt emerged as the weekend's strongest newcomer. The spy thriller managed to rake in $3.65 million on Saturday—a 40% increase from Friday's $2.19 million gross. Ranking second, the thriller collected an estimated $9.7 million on close to 1,900 screens at 1,826 locations. Focus estimates that The Debt will have $14.084 million in the bank by the end of the extended weekend. A 72% approval rating from more than 12,000 Flixster users is a solid start. The audience was evenly split between genders.

Shark Night 3D and Apollo 18 are running very close($60,000 apart in their estimates), and either film could end up with a better four-day haul. For what it's worth, Apollo 18 has a 75% approval rating from 23,000 Flixster users, while Shark Night 3D has a mediocre 63% from more than 9,000 ratings. Apollo raked $8.70 million at 3,328 locations, while Shark packed $8.64 million on approximately 4,100 screens at 2,806 locations. However, Shark was in 3D with higher-ticket pricing, which means that Apollo was attended more. Shark Night's 3D revenue accounted for a powerful 86%.

Four-day estimates:
The Help: $18 million*
The Debt: $14.084 million*
Apollo 18: $10.8 million**
Shark Night 3D: $10.5 million*
Colombiana: $9.3 million*
Our Idiot Brother: $6.7 million**
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World: $6.5 million**
*official distributor estimate
**box-office-film-news estimate

Domestic Comparison Data:
Jan. 1 to Sept. 5, 2011: $7,360,381,000^
Jan. 1 to Sept. 5, 2010: $7,640,879,000
Total Decrease: $280,948,000, -3.7%

Sept. 1 to Sept. 5, 2011: $134,900,000^
Sept. 1 to Sept. 5, 2010: $125,945,000
Total Increase: $8,955,000, +7.1%

Sept. 2 to Sept. 5, 2011: $125,000,000^
Sept. 3 to Sept. 6, 2010: $132,790,000
Total Decrease: $7,790,000, -5.9%