Though it dropped nearly 50% from its surprising opening-week bonanza, the late-summer hit Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes held onto the #1 spot like so many chimps onto a rung. With $27.5 million, the film cruised past the magic—or once magic, before movies cost that much—$100 million mark, and should continue to clean up in the dregs of late August. But the big winner this weekend was The Help, which overcame a devastating A.V. Club review to collect $25.5 million for second, a more impressive total when you note that it opened on over 1,000 fewer screens than Apes. Between it and The Blind Side, there appears to be a market out there for uplifting melodramas about African-Americans benefitting from the patronage of racist-country-club-friend-defying Southern belles. In more humbling box-office news, the Jesse Eisenberg/Aziz Ansari team-up 30 Minutes Or Less scooped up a middling $13 million, and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie suggested that “gleeks” may be crazy for the show, but not crazy enough to pay money to see a conceptually bizarre 3D stage version of it. At $5.7 million, it didn’t even break the Top 10, opening behind The Change-Up.
Not much action in limited release, save for the heartening performance of Senna, a widely adored documentary about the life and death of a Formula One racer. Given the minimal crossover between racing fans and arthouse mavens, clearly interest in a moving, innovative documentary transcends subject matter. At $33,050 per screen on two screens, it made three times as much on average as anything else playing this week.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.