Hero Movie Tops Second Big (but low) Weekend in U.S.

For the second weekend in a row, the spectacular Chinese martial-arts saga, subtitles and all, beat back the Hollywood fare, earning $11.5 million over the typically slow four-day holiday weekend, according to estimates Monday.

Despite dropping 51 percent, Zhang Yimou's critically acclaimed epic--about an would-be assassin who sacrifices himself for peace in the kingdom, and the all-time top-grossing film in China (where it opened in 2002)--has now earned $35.2 million since Miramax released it two weeks ago in North America.

With Labor Day marking the official end of the summer box-office season, the top 12 films earned $83.4 million over four days and $64.5 million over three. That feeble total was the lowest Labor Day weekend gross since 2000, down a whopping 21 percent from 2003's holiday haul. Studio apologists cite the impact of Hurricane Frances, which they estimated to have swept away 5 percent of possible overall weekend business.