'The Help' steps up to first place

By Sarah Sluis

In a late summer coup, The Help rose a spot to first place in its second week, taking home $20.4 million. The Civil Rights era drama with a touch of comedy lost just 21.4% of its audience. Earlier this summer, Bridesmaids managed the same feat, dipping just 20.4% its second outing. Other female-driven summer releases of years past, like Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love, fell 35-50% their sophomore sessions, proving that a strong hold takes not only a female-driven audience but extraordinarily positive word-of-mouth. Though the end of the summer is approaching, The Help should continue to make waves at the box office. While New York and Los Angeles typically have the highest-grossing theatres in the nation, The Help has drawn support from theatres in Jackson, Mississippi, where the film is set, and Southern audiences in Memphis, Tennessee.

The four new releases this week couldn't summon audiences. The highest-grossing of the bunch, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, finished third with $12 million. As kids go back to school, Spy Kids won't be able to count on the high weekday grosses that made earlier youth-targeted pics so profitable. With poor reviews and box-office performance, this may be the end of the Spy Kids franchise.

Conan the Barbarian, considered one of the frontrunners, landed fourth with $10 million. Audiences over 25 were the main attendees of the movie, when really a younger audience would have sparked to the content. A lack of awareness of the first film probably turned off younger audiences, as well as the casting of Jason Momoa, a relative unknown.

Ending up a disappointing sixth, Fright Night debuted to just $7.9 million. Again, the majority of the audience was comprised of viewers over 25 who may have been aware of the first film, which came out in the 1980s. Critics liked the movie, but attendees weren't as excited. Those polled gave it a B- score overall.

The romantic, occasionally a wee melodramatic One Day failed to lure away female audiences from The Help. The Anne Hathaway-Jim Sturgess romance earned $5.1 million, though its sub-2,000 screens meant its $2,900 per-screen average was higher than films further up in the top ten.

On the specialty circuit, historical war film Amigo earned $4,000 per screen on ten screens. Mozart's Sister, which had charming reviews, averaged $4,700 per screen on seven screens.

This Friday, horror flick Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, actioner Colombiana and comedy Our Idiot Brother will provide a mix of genre and adult-skewing fare to audiences in search of some air-conditioned entertainment.