In spite of four new movies opening this weekend, Caesar and his IQ-boosted buddies held onto their throne as Rise of the Planet of the Apes topped the box office on Friday with $8.1 million, according to early estimates.
That means Fox’s $90 million sci-fi action film is on pace for a second-weekend tally of about $26 million, which would represent a large but respectable drop of 53 percent. (Most summer action films fall somewhere between 55 and 60 percent.) On Sunday, Apes should climb past the $100 million mark.
This weekend’s true success story, however, is Disney’s The Help, which finished second on Friday with $7.6 million. That result points to a strong $23 million opening weekend. Add in the combined $9.9 million the PG-13 drama made on Wednesday and Thursday, and The Help‘s five-day total rises to about $33 million. The adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel, which DreamWorks and Participant Media co-financed for $25 million, earned a rare A+ rating from CinemaScore audiences, indicating enthusiastic word of mouth.
Critics weren’t quite as impressed, but The Help still received generally positive reviews. According to CinemaScore, adult women fueled the movie, as 83 percent of the audience was female and 78 percent was at least 25 years old. That same demographic has previously made hits out of such August releases as Eat Pray Love and Julie & Julia, and The Help should follow suit as it marches toward $100 million.
In third was the new 3-D horror flick Final Destination 5, which pulled in $7.3 million on Friday and should finish the weekend with $19 million. That’ll be a significant step down from 2009′s The Final Destination, which opened to $27.4 million. However, Final Destination 5 cost only $40 million to produce, and should be able to count on some lively results overseas.
The R-rated comedy 30 Minutes or Less opened in fourth place with a somewhat disappointing $4.9 million on Friday. The summer’s first five R-rated comedies — Bridesmaids, The Hangover Part II, Bad Teacher, Horrible Bosses, and Friends with Benefits — debuted to an average of $38 million. Since then, The Change-Up could only muster $13.5 million last weekend, and 30 Minutes or Less looks headed for around the same amount.
The week’s fourth and final new release was Fox’s Glee: The 3D Concert Movie. Proving that Gleeks are no Beliebers, the concert pic collected only $2.7 million on Friday. Although Brittany’s calculations still point to a $700 million opening, the PG film is actually on track for just $7 million this weekend.
By comparison, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never debuted to $29.5 million earlier this year. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. Rise of the Planet of the Apes — $8.1 mil
2. The Help — $7.6 mil
3. Final Destination 5 — $7.3 mil
4. 30 Minutes or Less — $4.9 mil
5. The Smurfs — $3.8 mil
6. Glee: The 3D Concert Movie — $2.7 mil
Box office preview: Rise of the Planet of the Apes should hold off four new movies
America loves Apes.
America loves white people rewriting history, too, apparently.
Uh…it’s fiction.
Too bad you no longer have a TV show so you could have told your people to avoid the film.
If you think that anyone actually considers “The Help” to be history, then you need, well, help.
No one said it was a documentary. Elements of history are ignored and glossed over, though. This could have been so much better.
My great-granddaddy owned your great-granddaddy.
Well, whatever the case one thing is clear: with the release of 30 Minutes or Less, Oscar season has officially begun.
Honestly, I’m not probably going to go see this in the movie theater, maybe netflix with my plan. If it was the original Planet of the Apes with a real actor like Heston, then I would definitely pay whatever.. 14 bucks to see it and search around for a really big 70mm screen to watch it.
America has gone ape for Apes!
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Vin Diesel loved The Help.
Arnold Schwarzeneggar loved the help. Not the movie, he actually loved the help.
Nice…
I really didn’t want to see the apes movie, but after being talked into going to a drive-in for the first time in 20 years I went. I have to say that this was in fact a really great movie and the ending was great. If you don’t think you will like go and you will prove yourself wrong. I can’t wait for the next 2 films. I hope they both get made aswell as this one did.
Glee fails…suck it Ryan Murphy.
Not really. It was made for 8.5 million and the profit is besides the point, it’s only purpose is to promote Glee’s 3rd season and keep its name in the press so actually Glee wins. Beween the show, the concert tour, the reality series, the singles and the mercahndise, Ryan Murphy has more money than we ever will so actually…you fail.
Glee failed? It wasn’t suppose to be for a vast audience. It was for Glee and its FANS. Not everyone watches Glee, why would random people go see it if they’re not a fan. I agree with Captain the movie itself was a marketing tool, the show returns in about a month, it was a good marketing strategy.
He does.
They were clearly hoping the movie would do much better, in line with music downloads and CD sales. And the only reason EW posted a “Top 6″ was because of its obsession with all things “Glee.”
Glad “The Help” is doing this well. I heard some complaints that this movie wasn’t bleak enough and therefore , not historically correct as is should and could’ve been. Perhaps those folks should make a documentary about how it realy was, instead of doing nothing and jumping on those who actually bring some light to an aspect of life in those days that rarely if ever get to the big screen… Finaly, Tinker tailor soldier spy will kill at the oscars, and Oldman will kick mr Titanics ass on Oscar night!!!
I blame final destination 4′s badness for 5′s mediocre opening.
Agreed!
I blames myself.
I blame how terrrible the first 4 were for the weak opening for number 5 just like I’ll blame how bad the first 5 were for the weak opening of part 6 and so on and so on…..
I am a black, gay crippled (with jewish and mexican ancestry) kid and I want to thank Ryan Murphy for changing my life.. You are the best, the greatest and most amazing human being on planet earth
. I didn’t know who I really was until you came along and gave us Glee, the greatest tv show of all time
That’s so funny because I’m a gay, one-armed, hermaphrodite pirate and my life was also changed by Glee. Thank you Ryan Murphy for teaching me that it doesn’t matter how repulsive you are as long as you have a good singing voice.
These posts disgust me because I am actually a pansexual donkey trainer with mild dyslexia and cerebral palsy. Glee legitimately changed my life by showing me that I don’t have to be ashamed of myself and that gay people are people too (I always thought they were mermaids that accidently got washed up on the beach.) Thank you Ryan Murphy and eelG!
Thank you Glee for encouraging me to come out of the closet while still in High School.. Now I get my @ss beat on a daily basis.. Not cause I am gay, but because I am an annoying little c@nt who tends to break into a song every time
I am a 54 year old single guy who refuses to grow up and I want to thank Ryan Murphy and Glee for changing my life.. Now I can be who I am and not feel ashame for hanging out with 16 year old boys, what can I say? I relate to those beautiful… Souls
This is weird.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!
*reads replies with popcorn* p
I’m a 16 year old straight man. I’m absolutely indifferent to Glee. Also GTF away from me Phillips before I gut you like a fish. :3
When I first started reading this post I literally thought it was by a spammer who had come up with their most creative website yet. Oh well.
Gotta give it to you- +1
Another not so much related point. What is it with people on this forum ( americans) looking down on the taste of “americans” with comments like ” America loves crap” . Apparently america also has too much affection for stupid people who look down on the taste of people who are not them.
Stop wallowing in crap.
Some of us are canadians. Yep, not everyone who reads this site is from the US. Also, it’s okay to have opinions on your own country and disapprove of the majority of people in it. Like you just did.
Hey well I’m French, and I agree with yah.
America loves crap.
Vin Diesel loves America.
I’m glad that Rise of the Planet of the Apes will be #1 again this weekend. It really deserves it. Even though it’s a popcorn movie, it has ideas and intelligence, unlike the idiotic Green Lantern and Transformers 3. I hope Final Destination 5 is a flop, because I don’t want FD 6 and 7 to be made and pollute our theaters with mediocrity. It it’s a hit, that will prove how dumb most moviegoers are that pay to see the same movie they’ve seen four other times. But then again, people wasted money on The Hangover 2, which was pretty much a remake of the first one; so I wouldn’t put it pass the adults who can only read at a 2nd grade level to pay good money to see this cinematic trash. Today, the simpletons just want blood and gore thrown at them. Gone are the days when the horror genre was one of the best in cinema. We need more horror movies that have smart stories and good scares, like the original Halloween and Scream. But given the general public’s bad taste in movies, Hollywood will be catering to the braindead for a while. It’s too bad that The Smurfs is a big hit. Hollywood has to get it through their heads that a children’s movie can be fun and well-written, not all bathroom humor. I fear for the IQ of the next generation since they keep watching these poorly-made children’s films. When I’m an adult and have kids, I’m not going to let them go to the movies until they’re thirteen if Hollywood keeps treating younger audiences like idiots. I don’t want to take them to those movies and have them and myself lose brain cells.
“When I’m an adult and have kids…”
Good luck.
You know, there are smartly written children’s films. Pixar produces them every year (excluding Cars 2). They have heart and meaning and manage to be funny without using toilet humor. And the slasher genre is dead. The only thing coming from it is awful remakes and all horror fans shouldn’t keep their hopes up. The only good ones are denied a theater release now.
Yay, “Apes”! Hope the creative team gets to do more with this franchise, because they clearly have interesting ideas.
The whole idea of a “Glee” concert movie struck me as kind of silly; everyone in the target demographic would have already seen the songs performed on TV, and there are about a million YouTube videos of the concert tour.
Glad Apes are doing well, and glad Harry Potter will outgross Transformers… I was nervous at first it wouldn’t. Nothing being released looks interesting though. I’ll wait until Contagion in september.
If you truly are ‘nervous’ that one movie might not make more money than another, you really need to get out of the house more.
#insecurepersonmakingfunofsomeoneontheinternet
JoeC has a point though
Harry Potter is the only movie I’ve gone to see this year. I will also see Tin Tin in December. Lately I’ve been enjoying older classics on tv and dvd. Film noir, 60′s scifi Planet of the Apes, 2001, Hitchcock, Orson Welles The Stranger. They absolutely don’t make them like that anymore. Interesting stories performed by real actors. Oh, and no CGI.
Interesting, had The Help not been released on Wednesday it could’ve actually won the weekend box office.
The Help being released on Wednesday is part of the reason why it’s weekend will be big. Word of mouth had time to spread on Wednesday and Thursday and people who were on the fence are now lining up to buy tickets. Typical marketing strategy to studios who really want to push something they believe in…or on the flipside, for movies that are crap and they want to get as many butts in the seats before the weekend so they can claim that the early opening is what hampered a huge Friday through Sunday gross.
as for final destination 5′s weak box office. it is called karma. the last one changed it’s opening weekend to face off against rob zombie’s halloween 2 because the studio knew the weinsteins and dimension were having $ troubles and were having difficulty even releasing a film.
“The Help” is not great, but it is the best-acted movie of
the summer. The actresses were given a Disneyfied script and a weak director, and did surprisingly well. Especially Viola Davis, who can do no wrong.