You can’t keep a good ape down.
That’s what movie prognosticators learned this weekend as Rise of the Planet of the Apes repeated as box office champ. The simian thriller peeled $27.5 million—50% less than last week, but still enough to best the rest, thanks to a bunch of underperforming entrants.
Not that we can include The Help in that list of underperformers. The film, a beautifully inspirational story marred by some less-than-inspiring language, swept up a solid $25.5 million in box office receipts. It’s the sort of movie that could hang around for a good long while, too: The fact that it appeals to oldsters like me (60% of its audience was over 35) and that it’s the recipient of some strong word of mouth (audiences have given the flick an A+, according to CinemaScore) bodes well for its cinematic run.
But more youth-oriented films tanked. Final Destination 5, which I had the true misfortune of reviewing, hacked its way to a third-place finish with a mere $18.4 million—far less than its predecessor The Final Destination made in 2009. While its opening take lands the fifth installment in the middle of the pack of Final Destination films, in real attendance it did the worst—making me wonder whether the franchise is, um, dead.
30 Minutes or Less also woefully underperformed, stealing $13 million to finish fifth (an apple’s throw away from those bothersome Smurfs in fourth). But at least its makers can say it did better than Glee: The 3D Concert Movie. Apparently only hardcore Gleeks made the pilgrimage to the theater this weekend: The TV show’s big-screen debut made just $5.7 million (less than half of what The Jonas Brothers pocketed when they threw their own 3-D theatrical concert) and was seen by about a half-million people.
Maybe if Glee had included some singing, dancing lowland gorillas, it might’ve fared better.
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