DreamWorks and Participant Media’s The Help handily beat a new round of competitors to top the Friday box office with $5.8 million, dropping only 24% and upping its domestic total to a stellar $57.1 million.
Nor could Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, Conan the Barbarian or vampire pic Fright Night trump 20th Century Fox holdover Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which is holding at No. 2, grossing $4.7 million on Friday for a domestic cume of $122 million.
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The Help, distributed by Disney, is now on course to win the weekend with a projected gross of $19 million, while Rise of the Apes should gross between $15 million and $16 million.
Lionsgate and Millennium’s Conan and DreamWorks’ Fright Night were both sluggish, with Spy Kids in 4D, from the Weinstein Co./Dimension Films, pulling ahead to claim the No. 3 spot with an estimated Friday gross of $4 million.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Spy Kids — receiving a B+ CinemaScore — should stay at No. 3, with a projected weekend gross of north of $12 million.
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Conan, costing north of $70 million to produce, grossed roughly $3.7 million on Friday, and is should finish behind Spy Kids for the weekend.
Remake Fright Night, starring Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin, may not even reach $10 million for the weekend after grossing $3.1 million on Friday, and could be bumped out of the top five by Sony holdover The Smurfs.
Focus Features’ Anne Hathaway-Jim Sturgess romantic drama One Day, based on British author David Nicholls’ best-selling book of the same name, opened in far fewer theaters than the three other new films to gross $1.9 million on Friday.
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One Day looks to gross $5.6 million for the weekend, and is likely taking a hit from The Help, with both films appealing heavily to older females. Of One Day’s opening-night audience, 72 percent were females, while 73 percent of those buying tickets were 25 and up.
One Day, Conan and Fright Night all received a so-so B- CinemScore from moviegoers (in contrast, Fright Night received strong reviews).
Conan played heavily to men, who made up 76 percent of the audience, with 67 percent over the age of 25. Fright Night skewed even older, with 75 percent of Friday night’s audience over the of 25. Males made up 60 percent of the audience (as with The Help, Disney is distributing Fright Night for DreamWorks).
