UPDATED: Friday’s numbers have been updated with actual estimates and it isn’t pretty for any of the new releases. All of the newcomers except for One Day dropped even further with Fright Night being the biggest disappointment.
Everyone pretty much agreed The Help was going to take the weekend #1 and after Friday’s early estimates it looks like “everyone” was right. The Help added an estimated $5.8 million to its coffers on Friday and is eying a weekend around $19-20 million, which would give it a cume somewhere around $71 million, on its way to $100 million, but could it go higher?
In second is Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which went into Friday with $117 million after two full weeks in theaters. With an estimated $4.6 million on Friday it’s looking to add another $12 million on Saturday and Sunday, which would put it in the top 13 for the year with around $134 million. To crack the top ten it will have to pass Captain America: The First Avenger, which currently resides at #10 with $160 million and while Captain may not make the top ten this weekend, it’s still in 1,988 theaters so it’s not done yet.
Now that we’ve covered the previously released features we can finally get to the newcomers, starting with Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World bringing in an estimated $4 million on Friday and a weekend that should top out around $13 million, $20 million shy of 2003’s Spy Kids 3D: Game Over opening weekend… game over indeed.
In fourth is Lionsgate’s Conan the Barbarian, taking an estimated $3.7 million on Friday, which isn’t impressive for a film budgeted at $80 million. Thing is, I think this is a film that could perform well overseas and if it performs well enough is there a chance for a sequel? We’ll have to wait and see on that one, but feel free to speculate.
In fifth we finally reach DreamWorks’ Fright Night, which is much better than the terrible $2.6 million it took in on Friday. An awful start for an R-rated, 3D vampire feature going into Saturday and Sunday. As it is, it looks like $9 million for the weekend is out of reach with $8 million looking to be the ceiling.
Finally, you have to scroll down to ninth place to find Focus’ One Day. The Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess romance took in an estimated $1.8 million on Friday from 1,719 theaters. A $5 million weekend is likely.
I’ve included Friday’s early estimates below. I will update the numbers with actual estimates once they’re made available.
- The Help – $5.8 million
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes – $4.6 million
- Spy Kids 4D: All the Time in the World – $4 million
- Conan the Barbarian – $3.7 million
- Fright Night – $2.6 million
- The Smurfs – $2.2 million
- Final Destination 5 – $2.4 million
- 30 Minutes or Less – $2 million
- One Day – $1.8 million
- Crazy, Stupid, Love – $1.4 million
