‘The Butler’ tops ‘One Direction’ at box office over Labor Day weekend with $20.2 million

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” was served another first-place finish over the Labor Day weekend.

The film starring Forest Whitaker as a veteran White House butler earned $20.2 million in the top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row, bringing the Weinstein Co. historical drama’s domestic haul to $79.5 million.

Sony’s boy-band music documentary “One Direction: This Is Us” opened in second place with $18.5 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theatres Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theatre locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com, are:

1. “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” Weinstein Co., $20,201,272, 3,330 locations, $6,066 average, $79,466,378, three weeks.

2. “One Direction: This Is Us,” Sony, $18,472,875, 2,735 locations, $6,754 average, $18,472,875, one week.

3. “We’re the Millers,” Warner Bros., $16,288,094, 3,445 locations, $4,728 average, $113,240,012, four weeks.

4. “Planes,” Disney, $10,882,322, 3,259 locations, $3,339 average, $73,969,992, four weeks.

5. “Instructions Not Included,” Lionsgate, $10,378,558, 348 locations, $29,823 average, $10,378,558, one week.

6. “Elysium,” Sony, $8,420,783, 2,539 locations, $3,317 average, $80,524,512, four weeks.

7. “Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” Sony, $7,069,709, 3,118 locations, $2,267 average, $24,523,893, two weeks.

8. “The World’s End,” Focus, $6,511,335, 1,553 locations, $4,193 average, $18,320,569, two weeks.

9. “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters,” Fox, $6,189,447, 2,393 locations, $2,586 average, $56,729,466, four weeks.

10. “Getaway,” Warner Bros., $5,606,142, 2,130 locations, $2,632 average, $5,606,142, one week.

11. “Blue Jasmine,” Sony, $5,306,163, 1,179 locations, $4,501 average, $21,772,631, six weeks.

12. “You’re Next,” Lionsgate, $5,069,361, 2,437 locations, $2,080 average, $14,409,069, two weeks.

13. “Despicable Me 2,” Universal, $3,800,500, 1,284 locations, $2,960 average, $355,739,290, nine weeks.

14. “2 Guns,” Universal, $3,386,425, 1,411 locations, $2,400 average, $70,096,330, five weeks.

15. “The Grandmaster,” Weinstein Co., $3,181,334, 749 locations, $4,247 average, $3,377,378, two weeks.

16. “Closed Circuit,” Focus, $3,116,885, 870 locations, $3,583 average, $3,628,731, one week.

17. “The Smurfs 2,” Sony, $2,831,627, 1,366 locations, $2,073 average, $66,985,863, five weeks.

18. “Kick-Ass 2,” Universal, $2,469,015, 1,646 locations, $1,500 average, $26,998,060, three weeks.

19. “Monsters University,” Disney, $2,284,055, 1,889 locations, $1,209 average, $264,286,369, 11 weeks.

20. “The Wolverine,” Fox, $2,213,405, 988 locations, $2,240 average, $128,322,287, six weeks.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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