Does the summer always end with such weak movies? The past few weekends at the box office have been less-than impressive, but surely that's because movie-goers are done with summer vacation and heading back to their real lives, and the big-budget movies with big-budget marketing came to theaters two months ago.

From The Associated Press:

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “The Help,” $14.3 million. (Review by The AP's David Germain)
2. “Colombiana,” $10.3 million. (Review by The AP's Christy Lemire)
3. “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” $8.7 million. (Review by Germain)
4. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” $8.65 million ($22.1 million international). (Review by The News-Herald's Mark Meszoros; "Movie simians rise to next level in new 'Apes' prequel" by Germain)
5. “Our Idiot Brother,” $6.6 million. (Review by Lemire)
6. “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World,” $5.7 million.
7. “The Smurfs,” $4.8 million.
8. “Conan the Barbarian,” $3.1 million. (Review by Lemire)
9. “Fright Night,” $3 million. (Review by Lemire)
10. “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” $2.9 million. (Review by Lemire)

-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl