A release date for the DVD/Blu-ray release of “The Help” has just been announced! The movie will be available to buy on Tuesday, December 6th, just in time for holiday shopping! Supplemental material will feature deleted scenes, a music video, and two featurettes (“The Making of The Help: From Friendship To Film,” and “In Their Own Words: A Tribute To the Maids Of Mississippi”).

You can pre-order the Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy, the Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo or the DVD version.

I have learned that the star-studded cast of Tate Taylor’s The Help — DreamWorks Picture’s late-summer adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel that topped the box-office charts each of its first three weekends in release and has earned more than $150 million worldwide, thus far — has been chosen to receive this year’s Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award at the 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz, the first awards show of the Oscar season.

Carlos de Abreu, the Founder and Executive Director of the event, says that no fewer than a dozen of the film’s actors — including all of those who play its principal characters — have indicated that they will collect the award in-person at a gala ceremony on October 24, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. They include: 2009 best supporting actress Oscar nominee/current best actress Oscar hopeful Viola Davis, best supporting actress Oscar hopeful Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Emma Stone, 1981 best actress Oscar winner Sissy Spacek, 1981 best supporting actress Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, 1973 Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson, and Mike Vogel.

Previous casts honored with this award include Crash (2005), which went on to win the best picture Oscar, as well as Bobby (2006), Hairspray (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and best picture Oscar nominee The Social Network (2010).

In recent weeks, de Abreu announced the recipients of several other prizes — Rango for the Hollywood Animation Award; Oscar nominee Emmanuel Lubezki (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) for the Hollywood Cinematographer Award; Oscar winner Stephen Mirrione (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) with the Hollywood Editor Award; Oscar nominee James Murakami (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) for the Hollywood Production Designer Award; and Oscar winner Scott Farrar (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) for the Hollywood Visual Effects Award — and says that the remaining honorees will be announced over the next few weeks.

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The maids of “The Help” didn’t take the Labor Day weekend off. The surprise summer hit held firm at the top of the domestic box office for the third straight week with $19 million in ticket sales.

The drama about white women and their black maids in Civil Rights-era Mississippi polished off three new films based on four-day estimates released by movie studios on Monday, the U.S. Labor Day holiday that ended a record summer at U.S. and Canadian theaters. “The Help,” a critics favorite that debuted a month ago in the No. 2 spot, was produced by DreamWorks and distributed by Walt Disney Co.

Newcomers including two horror flicks generated modest sales on a weekend traditionally slow for movie-going.

Spy thriller “The Debt,” starring Helen Mirren, took second place with a better-than-expected $12.6 million in the North American (U.S. and Canadian) market. The film tells the story of the hunt for a Nazi war criminal and how the mission haunts a trio of secret agents three decades later. The film drew an older audience with 70 percent of moviegoers over age 40, distributor Focus Features said.

The studio released the movie on Wednesday, and estimated domestic sales since it debuted reached $14.5 million.

Space mystery “Apollo 18,” a new release that purports to use “found footage” of an ill-fated trip to the moon, came in third for the weekend with $10.7 million. That fell within studio projections for a film that cost less than $5 million to make, said Erik Lomis, president of distribution for The Weinstein Co, which released the film.

Following behind at No. 4 was new thriller “Shark Night (3-D),” a tale of nightmarish fresh-water shark attacks at a Louisiana lake house, with $10.3 million, at the higher end of industry expectations. Aimed at teens, the film drew 57 percent of its audience from an under-25 crowd.

Sci-fi flick “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” stayed strong, rounding out the top five with $10.3 million during its fifth weekend in theaters.

“Apes,” a revival of the classic tale of chimps launching a revolution, and “The Help” stood out as two surprise summer hits. “Apes” has rung up $162.5 million in domestic sales and $186.5 million in international markets, for a combined total of $349 million.

“The Help” has pulled in about $123.4 million since it hit U.S. and Canadian theaters, exceeding forecasts from box-office watchers. The film is an adaptation of a best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett.

The two movies helped Hollywood rack up record sales for the four-month summer season measured from early May through Labor Day, when studios bring in as much as 40 percent of annual revenue. Domestic totals hit an estimated $4.4 billion for the period, a 0.7 percent increase from last year, according to figures from Hollywood.com Box Office.

The revenue gain was helped by slightly higher average ticket prices as movie attendance fell 1.4 percent.

“Though attendance figures are down, the performance is still impressive given the intense competition” for audiences posed by a range of entertainment options, said Paul Dergarabedian, head of Hollywood.com Box Office.

Summer hits included big sequels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″ and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” plus superhero tales such as “Captain America: The First Avenger” and family film “The Smurfs.” Adult comedies, including “Bridesmaids” and “The Hangover 2″ also scored with audiences.

“The Debt” was released by Focus Features, a unit of Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures. Privately held Weinstein Co released “Apollo 18.” Closely held Relativity Media released “Shark Night (3-D)” in the United States and eOne distributed the film in Canada.

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was released by 20th Century Fox, the film studio of News Corp.

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The Help star Emma Stone has said that the film has been a surprise hit because audiences can really identify with the characters.

The movie, adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel about African American maids during the early sixties, is currently top of the US box office and has taken a domestic total of $100m since its release.

“It’s human,” Stone told The Hollywood Reporter, following the film’s French premiere on Friday.

“Everyone wants to talk about the race issues, feminism and the themes the movie touches on,” she explained. “But even more than that, it’s the story of three woman who come together in an unlikely way to create positive change.

“Everyone has the ability to be extraordinary. It’s about ordinary people brave enough to want to be extraordinary.”

Stone recently said that she chose to star in The Help in an effort to move towards more mature film projects.

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The Disney film’s stars spoke to The Hollywood Reporter at the Deauville American Film Festival in France.

The stars of this summer’s breakout hit The Help headed from Jackson, Mississippi to the beaches of Normandy for the French premiere of the film at the Deauville American Film Festival on Friday night. The film’s stars Viola Davis and Emma Stone took refuge from the rainy weekend to sit down with The Hollywood Reporter’s France Correspondent Rebecca Leffler and talk about the film’s reception across the Atlantic. The Help, still at the top of the U.S. box office and already far across the $100 million mark stateside, will be released in France on Oct. 26th.

The Hollywood Reporter: The film just premiered in Deauville to a thunderous round of applause and the buzz around the festival has been positive. It’s a very American subject, so what is it about the film that makes it appeal to an international crowd?

Emma Stone: It’s human. Everyone wants to talk about the race issues, feminism and the themes the movie touches on. But even more than that, it’s the story of three women who come together in an unlikely way to create positive change. Everyone has the ability to be extraordinary. It’s about ordinary people brave enough to want to be extraordinary. Every human being can relate to that. My character Skeeter also deals with being different and not having the same mentality as the people around her.

THR: How did the story touch you personally?

Viola Davis: When I was growing up, we were the only black family in our town in Rhode Island. All of the images I saw in school were black people in the cotton fields. I remember telling my teacher when I was 15: “Black people never did anything,” He took me to the black historical society where we saw writing from black intellectuals and influential people. I remember that day so clearly. We sat for about an hour and just cried.

THR: Do you think the fact that this film is so popular shows that there’s been a shift in thinking in America?

Davis: I have a fantasy that people are intrigued by the topic and that they’re attracted to the wide range of characters. My fear is that the movie is popular because the book was popular. It is my fantasy and my hope that more movies with black people in them will become more mainstream and not just movies dealing with race.

THR: The Help has obviously affected many people, but how did this film influence you personally?

Stone: This story is the first one where what we’re discussing during the promotion is enriching my life. When I was younger, all I really wanted was to make my parents laugh. At the end of the day, I was just dancing in my living room. I still am. But now, I understand the power of storytelling now beyond just being a childhood ham.

PHOTOS: The Help’s Retro, Southern Style

THR: How was the response here in Deauville different from the reaction in Hollywood?

Davis: It was different from the premiere in Los Angeles. People clapped, but not with as much uninhibited joy. It was just enormous here last night.

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The long Labor Day weekend is providing some help to “The Help.”

The historical drama grossed $3.6 million so far this weekend, on its way to $14 million for the frame. The film, starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Viola Davis and Emma Stone, is closing in on $120 million after three weeks.

Meanwhile, Weinstein Company’s low-budget found footage thriller “Apollo 18″ scared up a decent $2.8 million, and is projected to earn $11 million for the weekend, just below the studio’s expectations.

Another debut, “Shark Night 3D,” earned $2.8 million, aided by playing on 3D screens. The film should earn around $8 or $9 million over the three-day.

However, the more specialized thriller “The Debt,” powered by Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington, may give “Shark Night” a run for its money. The film earned an impressive $1.9 million Friday, from significantly less screens.

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DreamWorks’ “The Help” helped itself to the $100 million mark at the domestic box office, the studio announced Wednesday.

The $25 million period drama starring Emma Stone has been one of the summer’s surprise breakout hits, winning the domestic box office during its second and third weekends of release.

“We went from opening not No. 1 to being No. 1, which is unusual in itself,” Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive VP of distribution, told TheWrap. Disney handles distribution for DreamWorks.

Three weeks into its run, “The Help” is actually adding locations: It opened with 2,534 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, expanded by 156 in its second week, by another 88 in its third and is going up by some 65 more this weekend, Hollis said.

And as time goes on, the demographics of its audience are changing.

Hollis said that during the first weekend, the movie played well in urban, heartland and upscale theaters, but skewed older and female.

In the weeks since, it has expanded its reach and is now drawing old and young, male and female, Hollis said.

“We hope that what we’ve seen to date is something that can continue into the end of summer and into fall,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate to have what I can only describe as the movie to see in recent weeks.”

The movie opens in its first international territory, Australia, this weekend.

“The Help” is the story of friendship among African American maids in 1963, and offers an unsparing look at the way their employers treat them.

In a written statement, writer-director Tate Taylor said, “We never imagined this film, which began its journey inspired by the enthusiasm of a small group of Mississippi friends, would ever even get made. Now to have it seen and embraced by so many people is just beyond our wildest dreams.”

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It what may be the lowest grossing weekend of the year, The Help finished in first place for the second week in a row with $14.3 million, according to studio estimates. The PG-13 drama dropped only 28 percent — a particularly impressive hold considering that this weekend also marked the debut of Hurricane Irene, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made its way through New York City and New England. The Help, which cost $25 million to produce and has so far earned $96.6 million, should cross the $100 million mark by Wednesday.

But while The Help managed to withstand Mother Nature, the overall market took a beating. According to the box office reporting service Rentrak, as many as 1,000 theaters closed at some point during the weekend due to Irene. AMC Theatres, for instance, shut down all of its theaters in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

“Our key large urban East Coast markets were really killed and many theaters closed or were dead even if they remained open,” said FilmDistrict exec Bob Berney in a statement, whose studio released the horror flick Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. “The E-Walk on 42nd Street in Manhattan gross was $20,800 on Friday and $0 on Saturday.” The weekend box office was down an estimated 23 percent from last year, and is running neck and neck with Super Bowl weekend (Feb. 4-6) as the slowest of the year. (It’s too early to say which weekend will claim the dubious title.)

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