Summer 2011 is poised to close with an even quieter whimper than normal. Unless any of the new releases break-out, this Labor Day weekend will go down as the least-attended one since 1992.

Opening nationwide are Apollo 18 at 3,328 nearly single-screen locations, Shark Night 3D on over 3,500 screens at 2,806 locations (including around 2,500 showing it in 3D) and The Debt at 1,826 single-screen locations, but The Help has an excellent shot at topping the box office for the third weekend in a row. The drama continued to hold well on the weekdays, and it's the type of crowd-pleasing movie that people catch up on over the holiday weekend.

All Apollo 18 has going for it is the intrigue of its moon landing premise ("Discover the reason we never went back."), and whether or not its "found footage" aspect has tricked anyone into thinking it's real. Other than that, the movie doesn't look like a pleasant experience as far as horror movies go, with its standard "someone-gets-infected-in-claustrophobic-setting" scenario, nondescript characters and murky camera gimmick. The market for this type of movie relates more to supernatural hauntings, such as Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism, or something more grounded, like Quarantine. Space horror has been a mixed bag. Outside of Alien, there's duds likePandorum, Ghosts of Mars, Doom, Supernova andJason X, not to mention countless straight-to-video-or-cable titles.

Normally, a shark thriller should score a decent audience or at least a greater turn-out than lesser chompers like Piranha. In the case of Shark Night 3D, though, the movie's marketing campaign has neither built up the shark menace nor displayed much of the sharks. The tagline says "your worst fears are about to surface," but that's not sufficiently shown beyond a shift from party music to ominous tones. What's more, the ads haven't promised much in the way of over-the-top thrills and gore, and the premise of different kinds of sharks attacking people in a lake seems as random as Snakes on a Plane. BothShark and Snakes were directed by David R. Ellis, but the ads cite him as the director of The Final Destination(odd given that movie's poor reputation). At the end of the ads, the announcer tacks on "also showing in 2D" in a feeble bid to overcome the perceived limitation of the "3D" in the title. (On top of that, most of the action seems to take place in the day, not the titular night.)

The Debt follows in the modest adult-thriller-for-Labor-Day tradition of The American, Traitor and The Constant Gardener. The trouble is that the movie has lacked clarity in its marketing campaign, coming off as some garbled Munich-like affair and relying on the genre and distinguished cast (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson,Sam Worthington, etc.) to carry the day. (Update: The Debt grossed $970,532 on Wednesday, compared to The American's $1.67 million on the same Wednesday last year.)

Box Office Mojo's reader polling has reflected the slowness at the box office. Apollo 18 has scored 10.4 percent for opening weekend so far, or a few ticks behind The Fourth Kind among past comparable titles. Shark Night has come in close to 10 percent for opening weekend, trailing Final Destination 5's 15.9 percent and, perhaps more alarmingly, Piranha 3D's 17.4 percent (which suggests just $7 million for Shark). The rosier comparisons indicate openings no higher than the low teen millions for both Apollo and Shark. The Debt brought up the rear with 6.2 percent for opening weekend, or less than half the interest in The American at the same point last year.

The Forecast, Sept. 2-5 (Four-day weekend)
1. The Help - $17 million
2. Apollo 18 - $13 million
3. Shark Night 3D - $12 million
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - $8.5 million
5. The Debt - $8.5 million

Bar for Success
To get a pass, modest horror movies like Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D should be hitting the high teen millions over the long Labor Day weekend, while The Debt would be fine with around $10 million.

The Help stayed in charge for the third Friday in a row, remaining the saving grace of a moribund close to Summer 2011. Down only 18 percent from last Friday, the drama earned an estimated $3.6 million, lifting its total to $108 million in 24 days.

The dueling horror movies, Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D, were just $10,000 apart, but both were bloodless.Apollo nabbed an estimated $2.84 million at 3,328 nearly single-screen locations, while Shark packed an estimated $2.83 million on approximately 4,100 screens at 2,806 locations. Shark's run included around 2,500 3D locations, and they accounted for 88 percent of its business. Apollohad the weakest launch yet for a "found-footage" horror movie, while Shark's bite wasn't even as big as the diminutive Piranha 3D's $3.6 million from last summer.

The Debt was relatively more impressive than the horror movies, even though it ranked fourth. The thriller collected an estimated $2.6 million on close to 1,900 screens at 1,826 locations, or around two-thirds of The American on the same Friday last year, and has tallied $4.5 million since its Wednesday debut.

Colombiana rounded out the Top Five with an estimated $2 million. Off 46 percent, the action thriller has made $16.6 million in eight days. As the weekend progresses, it should be neck-and-neck with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which generated an estimated $1.85 million. TheApes reboot fell only 29 percent and has rallied $154.1 million in 29 days.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark slipped further into oblivion, collapsing by 60 percent to an estimated $1.45 million for a $12.9 million tally in eight days. Our Idiot Brother held up better (down 41 percent) but was still insignificant with an estimated $1.42 million for an $11.7 million sum in eight days.

Meanwhile, golf drama Seven Days in Utopia was a miss with under $400,000 at 561 locations in its debut, and the re-rollout of Cars 2 stalled. The Pixar sequel took in an estimated $215,000 at 2,043 locations, or around half of Toy Story 3's re-expansion on the same Friday last year. With $187.7 million in 71 days, Cars 2 will be the first Pixar movie since A Bug's Life not to reach $200 million, and it's also the company's least-attended movie yet by a wide margin.

The Help stayed in charge for the third weekend in a row, remaining the saving grace of a moribund close to Summer 2011. Down only two percent from last weekend, the drama earned an estimated $14.2 million, lifting its total to $118.6 million in 26 days. For the four-day Labor Day weekend, distributor Walt Disney Pictures projected The Help at $18 million. The last movie to hold the top spot for three weekends was Inception.

Among the modest debuts, The Debt was the only remotely impressive one. Ranking second, the thriller collected an estimated $9.7 million on close to 1,900 screens at 1,826 locations, or nearly three-quarters of The American on the same weekend last year, and has tallied $11.6 million since its Wednesday debut. Distributor Focus Features noted that The Debt played mostly to folks over 30 years old, and that the audience was near evenly split between genders.

The dueling horror movies, Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D, were just $60,000 apart in their estimates, but both were bloodless. Apollo nabbed $8.70 million at 3,328 nearly single-screen locations, while Shark packed $8.64 million on approximately 4,100 screens at 2,806 locations.Shark's run included around 2,500 3D locations, and they accounted for 86 percent of its business. Apollo had the weakest launch yet for a "found-footage" horror movie, while Shark's bite wasn't even as big as the diminutivePiranha 3D's $10.1 million from last summer. The demographics were 57 percent male and 56 percent under 25 years old for Apollo (according to distributor The Weinstein Company), and 52 percent female and 57 percent under 25 for Shark (according to Relativity Media).

Rise of the Planet of the Apes rounded out the Top Five, generating an estimated $7.8 million. The Apesreboot fell only 12 percent and has rallied $160 million in 31 days. Off 29 percent, Colombiana slipped to sixth with an estimated $7.4 million and has made $22 million in ten days.

Our Idiot Brother held up better (down 26 percent) than the other second-weekend holdovers, but the comedy was still insignificant with an estimated $5.2 million for a $15.4 million sum in ten days. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark fell further into oblivion, collapsing by 42 percent to an estimated $4.9 million for a $16.4 million tally in ten days.

Meanwhile, golf drama Seven Days in Utopia was a miss with an estimated $1.2 million at 561 locations in its debut, and the re-rollout of Cars 2 stalled. The Pixar sequel took in an estimated $1.1 million at 2,043 locations, compared to Toy Story 3's $1.9 million re-expansion on the same weekend last year. With $188.6 million in 73 days, Cars 2 will be the first Pixar movie since A Bug's Life not to reach $200 million, and it's also the company's least-attended movie yet by a wide margin.