This year's Labor Day box office takings marked a record year for Hollywood, with an estimated $156 million paid to see movies across the national holiday weekend. One film "steamed" ahead over the weekend to give all other contenders the "brush" off by "sweeping" in $20 million over the four day holiday. Ok, enough of the cleaning puns; if you hadn't guessed, Lee Daniels' The Butler was the highest earning movie of the weekend, advancing its existing domestic earnings to a total of $79.3 million, according to THR.

Watch The Butler Trailer:

The Butler depicts life through the eyes of a White House butler who sees the great changes of the latter half of the 20th century, as well as a host of presidents come and go. Forest Whitaker plays said butler and is joined by chatshow host Oprah Winfrey who plays his wife. The film's success - it has become the first movie in 2013 to top the North American charts for three consecutive weeks - has been attributed to its all-star cast, including Jane Fonda, John Cusack, David Banner, Mariah Carey and Alan Rickman.

However, This Is Us is being thanked for the weekend's record-breaking success. Morgan Spurlock's 3D movie following boyband One Direction took $18 million and was initially predicted to storm ahead over the weekend and take $21.5 million. However, considering the movie's $10 million budget plus its concert documentary style - for the genre, it's a first to do so well and has helped bolster the weekend's box office mega-haul.

Watch One Direction's This Is Us Trailer:

2013's $156m has beaten 2007's $148m, despite a number of high profile movies failing to perform to predictions. Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez's thriller Getaway let out a squelch after mirroring its bad reviews; it fared no better during Labor Day, taking $5.5 million. Similarly, political thriller Closed Circuit, starring Eric Bana, scraped $3.5 million, failing to generate any hype despite having only opened last Wednesday.

Watch The We're The Millers Trailer:

Warner Bros. comedy, We're The Millers, is placed third with $15.9 million whilst DisneyToon Studios' kids animation Planes came fourth, proving a crowd pleaser with $10.7 million this last weekend.

One Direction
Fans Flocked To Watch One Direction Documentary, This Is Us.

There was more good news from the glittering weekend after comedy Instructions Not Included became the biggest opening Spanish language film ever in North America, grossing approximately $10 million despite only being screened in 347 theaters.

Did you visit the movies this weekend? What did you watch?