Steven Soderbergh's star-studded global virus romp Contagion reads like a who's who of intelligent Hollywood, so it's heartening to see that US audiences deemed it worthy of their time. The cerebral thriller, which had its world premiere in Venice recently, dominated the first post-summer weekend by a considerable margin, thanks to an estimated $23.1m haul.

Contagion was a certainty to open top, given that The Help was entering its fifth weekend and Lionsgate's new release Warrior contains two upcoming leads who lack a broad profile. So $23.1m represented a decent launch – not as good as Soderbergh's Ocean films and Erin Brockovich, but the Ocean franchise has a sexier ensemble and Brockovich had the biggest female star on the planet at the time.

Question is, does Contagion have enough stickiness to make significant gains in the weeks ahead? It's going to have to roll up its sleeves next weekend, when US audiences will finally get the chance to see Nicolas Winding Refn's genre movie Drive. Refn won the best director prize in Cannes, and delivers a pure rush. The marketing campaign has been somewhat modest, which may be a risky ploy given that lead Ryan Gosling is not yet a fully-fledged movie star and needs the exposure. Drive could get him there. Crazy, Stupid, Love did well for him recently, earning $78m in North America, and it will cross $100m worldwide within the week. Gosling will also appear later this year in George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, which opened in Venice the week before last. Hitherto an indie darling, Gosling certainly has the chops to be a star; now it depends on whether or not audiences embrace him.

Warrior opened in third place through Lionsgate on $5.6m. Gavin O'Connor's story about siblings who compete in a MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) has got Nick Nolte in combustible mood and pits two excellent young actors against each other: Tom Hardy and Australia's Joel Edgerton from Animal Kingdom.

It's never easy to release movies in today's ultra-competitive marketplace, and designing the right campaign is crucial. It makes me wonder what Fox Searchlight is going to do with Steve McQueen's Shame, which earned Michael Fassbender the Coppa Volpi on the Lido at the weekend. American audiences tend not to respond to depictions of sex on screen (or aren't allowed to because the movies fall foul of the censors) so this NC-17 gem will need a little TLC. Searchlight needed to swell the ranks of its awards season contenders and swooped on Shame in the first few days of the Toronto film festival. The studio released Black Swan and 127 Hours during last year's Academy Awards race, so it has a lot to live up to.

North American top 10, 9-11 September 2011

1 Contagion, $23.1m

2 The Help, $8.7m. Total: $137.1m

3 Warrior, $5.6m

4 The Debt, $4.9m. Total: $21.9m

5 Colombiana, $4m. Total: $29.8m

6 Rise of the Planet of the Apes, $3.9m. Total: $167.8m

7 Shark Night 3D, $3.5m. Total: $14.8m

8 Apollo 18, $2.9m. Total: $15m

9 Our Idiot Brother, $2.8m. Total: $21.4m

10 Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, $2.5m. Total: $34.2m