Actress Viola Davis attends the premiere of DreamWorks Pictures "The Help" held at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater on August 9, 2011 in Beverly Hills
*“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” managed to hold off a strong opening of “The Help” to remain box office champ, pulling in $27.5 million.
“The Help,” starring Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, earned a substantial $25.5 million to place second. As previously reported, Disney released the PG-13 drama on Wednesday in an attempt to build buzz heading into the weekend. That strategy seems to have paid off.
Based on Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel, the film grossed a combined $9.9 million on Wednesday and Thursday — boosting its five-day total to $35.4 million. It also garnered a rare A+ rating from CinemaScore audiences, which means the film should be benefiting from exceptional word of mouth.
Adult women were the driving force behind the $25 million movie’s success this weekend. According to Disney, 74 percent of the audience was female and 60 percent was over the age of 35.
To put things in perspective, Entertainment Weekly reports “The Help” opened stronger than both “Eat Pray Love” ($23.1 million) and “Julie & Julia” ($20 million) — two prior August releases that were also big hits with female moviegoers.
“If The Help‘s word of mouth is as flattering as CinemaScore says it is, the picture could very well become a $100 million smash,” writes EW’s John Young.
1. Rise of the Planet of the Apes — $27.5 mil
2. The Help — $25.5 mil
3. Final Destination 5 — $18.4 mil
4. The Smurfs — $13.5 mil
5. 30 Minutes or Less — $13.0 mil
Glad to hear this movie is making money – but I can’t get over the message this movie is conveying to black people. I am so tired of these “so-called period pieces”! How can we as a race forge ahead when something like this is constantly shown in movie theatres! It is time for the rest of the world to see the various aspect of black culture and not the “maid helper” mentality! Time to forge ahead and let America get a new grip on the new face/ facets of Black America!
Timmdogg,
“Those Who Forget History Are Doomed To Repeat It”
I had the pleasure of seeing this movie this weekend it was excellent. The movie was funny, sad, truthful and brilliantly acted. The race can moved forward by these period pieces because we can learn from the struggle so we try harder and expect more of ourselves because of the struggle of our people. We should be doing better in school and demanding that our kids don’t take education for graduated so they don’t get stuck in low paying service jobs. History exists so we can learn from it and not be ashame because during that time that was mostly the only jobs black women could get in the South being a maid. Even being a maid these women showed pride and self respect for themselves that has never been told from the maid point of view as shown in The Help. What set the black race back is the crap showed by blacks in reality tv, Hip Hop videos, BET Awards and stupid movies like Soul Plane.
music101 > > I soo agree. I saw The Help on opening day and it was fantastic. This is a part of history that needed to be told. Viola and Octavia’s performances blew me away.
Very well said Music!
I also saw this movie over the weekend (Detroit MI), & I couldn’t aggree with you more on your assessment of this story, & the brilliant acting.
What struck me as strange was the composition of the audience. The ratio of viewer was on spot in the article above with 60% being women (maybe even more, but what threw me for a loop was the fact that 40% of those women were White & over the age of 60. Not quite sure why they wanted to see this movie, but everyone seem to really enjoy it.