'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.

Can 'The Help' stave off a quartet of wide releases?

By Sarah Sluis

As we enter the last weeks of summer, the biggest blockbusters have already made their appearances. This week brings a quartet of new releases, but with all of them expected to open under $20 million, there's a chance that a strong showing from The Help could best all the new offerings.

1980s remakes Fright Night (3,114 theatres) and Conan the Barbarian (3,015 theatres) both have projected openings in the teen millions. Fright Night stars Colin Farrell as a vampire who moves to the suburbs, prompting the suspicions of a teen boy (Anton Yelchin). The horror rehash found a fan with critic Maitland McDonagh, who proclaimed the flick a "remake that retains the best and reworks the rest with a cleverness rooted in [screenwriter] Marti Noxon's (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") knowledge of and respect for the genre."

Conan the Barbarian stars Jason Momoa ("Game of Thrones") in the role made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger. McDonagh bemoans that the filmmakers "understand the mechanics of pulp fiction while being collectively deaf to the throbbing of its thrillingly vulgar heart." The one bright spot is Momoa's performance, which puts Schwarzenegger's "locker-room camp" acting to shame.

On one day in July each year, One Day (1,719 theatres) offers a snapshot of the (un-)relationship of the characters played by Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. Critic Daniel Eagan qualified the movie as a "gimmicky romance with a strong emotional payoff." Although the decades-long romance has its flaws, namely Sturgess' character's unlikeable qualities, it "presents its characters' struggles with enough honesty and insight to merit its weepy ending." With a smaller, targeted release, One Day is expected to open below $10 million.

One last kid-oriented picture is slipping into the summer lineup, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (3,295 theatres). The British reviews (where it's already screened for critics) don't think highly of the movie. Now that the franchise is in its fourth installment, it's resorted to gimmickry. The kiddie caper will be presented in "4D," with audience members using 3D glasses and scratch-and-sniff cards to modify the moviegoing experience. Sounds like fun for kids, but a trial for parents.

Packed with "elegant dialogue and formidable human observation," Mozart's Sister (7 theatres) tells the story on Nannerl, a talented musician who was overshadowed by her brother Wolfgang solely because she was female. David Noh praises the performances and the movie's recreation of a period setting, which makes "you truly feel you are there." A rarely explored cinematic subject, the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, gets its due in Amigo (11 theatres), a tale with "parallels with Afghanistan and Iraq today," according to THR's Ray Bennett.

On Monday, we'll see if The Help can ascend to first place its second week, or if Fright Night or Conan the Barbarian will be able to summon enough interest in order to start out in the top spot.