August 22, 2011 by Vinnie Leduc
Another late August weekend in which studios typically dump their blockbuster wannabes into theaters seemed to be the perfect situation for Rise of the Planet of the Apes to become the first movie of the year to reign atop the domestic box office for three consecutive weekends. Instead, The Help rode incredible word of mouth in its second week of release to not only truly rise and seize the throne from Cesar & friends, but also to become the first movie since True Grit in early January to climb to No. 1 after debuting lower. The Help‘s numbers only dropped 21%, while my interest in seeing the movie increased by 12%.
A weekend full of four weak new releases was the first time (I think) that three new movies were all offered in 3D; Spy Kids: All the Time in the World even extended beyond the trendy medium with an additional gimmick: “Aroma-Scope” scratch-and-sniff cards. Wow, really? I’d like to see that applied to the middle half hour of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Robert Rodriguez’s family caper opened poorly at No. 3, but it still managed to beat out a couple of ’80s remakes. Action-adventure Conan the Barbarian and horror-comedy Fright Night opened at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. Romantic drama One Night barely cracked the top 10, opening at No. 9.
Here were the top 5 in the domestic box office last weekend via BOM:
- The Help — Weekend Gross: $20.5 million — Total Gross: $71.8 million (#2 last week)
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes — Weekend Gross: $16.3 million — Total Gross: $133.8 million (#1 last week)
- Spy Kids: All the Time in the World — Weekend Gross: $12 million — Total Gross: $12 million (new)
- Conan the Barbarian — Weekend Gross: $10 million — Total Gross: $10 million (new)
- Fright Night — Weekend Gross: $8.3 million — Total Gross: $8.3 million (new)
