Apollo 18 Crashed, Sharks Killed, but “The Help” Is Still Alive

Due to its own brilliance and its competitors’ collective failure, Disney’s comedy movie “The Help” still held on to its number one box office position this weekend. It successfully saw off the challenge of three more newcomers just like it did at the previous weekends and added $14.2 million to its ever-increasing overall revenue.

Focus Features’ “The Debt” raked in $9.7 million, Dimension’s “Apollo 18” earned $8.7 million for its makers, while Relativity’s “Shark Night 3D” grossed $8.6 million but none can dampen the viewers’ enthusiasm to watch “The Help.”

Thanks to a number of positive pre-release reviews by the critics, The Help’s revenue declined only two percent as compared to last weekend, which is an incredible feat as the movie has now been in theatres for more than three weeks. So far, it has grossed $118.6 million overall in domestic sales and even more is expected as experts are tipping it to be re-released before the awards season, which generally draws a whole new audience to the cinemas.

Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington-starring spy thriller “The Debt” did decent business on debut but it won’t be enough to save it from box office axing in the near future.

“Apollo 18” tried to employ the Blair Witch-like shaky-camera effect but it didn’t do anything other than confuse the viewers. Neither did its makers misused the effects themselves but it seems that they have wrecked the whole concept for the future projects too.

Shark Night 3D’s makers didn’t take the hint from the long list of recent horror flops and released it anyways at a time when the cinemagoers are clearly not interested in being frightened. Result is that it became the latest horror death just like “Final Destination 5,” “Fright Night” and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.”

Old-timer “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” rounded out the top five with another decent haul of $7.8 million, which has taken its overall revenue to $160 million.

Source: [hollywoodtoday.net]