Contagion Beats The Help to Top Slow Weekend Box Office

Contagion Steven Soderbergh's virus outbreak thriller Contagion fittingly topped what was a pretty sickly weekend box office.The film, which stars Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law, pulled in $23.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo. That was enough to topple three-time champ The Help, which fell to second place with an additional $8.7 million (for a total of $137 million after five weeks).All told, the box office gross for the weekend's top 10 films was only $66.4 million, the lowest weekend gross this year. That was due in part to low debuts by the weekend's other newcomers, two of which failed to even make the Top 10.New release Warrior did manage to take third place with $5.6 million, followed by The Debt and Colombiana, which earned $4.9 million and $4 million, respectively.Rounding out the top 10: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (No. 6, $3.9 million, bringing its take to $167.8 million), Shark Night 3D (No. 7, $3.5 million), Apollo 18 (No. 8, $2.9 million ), Our Idiot Brother (No. 9, $2.8 million) and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (No. 10 $2.5 million).