It was neck-and-neck for a while, but in the end, the family-friendly ‘Dolphin Tale’ bested the Brad Pitt baseball-saga, ‘Moneyball,’ to take the top-earning spot at the box office this weekend.
Seventeen years after its initial box-office run, ‘The Lion King’ is again reigning supreme. The new 3D incarnation of the film, currently in a limited-engagement run, took in another $22 million to land atop the charts for the second weekend in a row.
In a limited engagement in 3D, the 1994 Disney classic, ‘The Lion King,’ earned $29 million to take the top spot at the box office this weekend.
‘Contagion,’ last week’s most popular movie, moved to second place, while Ryan Gosling’s ‘Drive’ took third in its debut week. Former box office champ ‘The Help’ came in fourth, and ‘Straw Dogs’ rounded out the top five.
It took a global epidemic to do it, but ‘The Help’ has finally been knocked out of the number one spot at the box office after three weeks at the top of the list.
The Steven Soderbergh-directed ‘Contagion,’ about a deadly and fast-spreading disease and the panic it causes, earned $23.1 million at theaters in its first week of release, relegating ‘The Help’ to a runner-up status. The mixed-martial arts action flick, ‘Warrior,’ came in third during its debut week, with ‘The Debt’ and ‘Columbiana’ rounding out the top five.
Earning a total of $123 million at the box office in the month since its release, ‘The Help’ kept its number one spot in theaters for the third week in a row, becoming the first film to do so since last summer’s ‘Inception.’
In its second week of release, strong word-of-mouth and positive reviews propelled ‘The Help’ past ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ to take the number one spot at the box office this weekend, while ‘Apes’ moved to the number two slot.
‘The Help’ earned $20.5 million, while ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ pulled in $16.3 million.
‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ was number one again this week, joining ‘Thor’ and ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ as one of only three films this summer to hold the top spot for two weekends in a row.
The film adaptation of the best-selling novel, ‘The Help,’ came in second, with horror flick ‘Final Destination 5,’ previous weekend box-office champ ‘The Smurfs,’ and the low-budget action comedy ’30 Minutes or Less’ rounding out the top five.
Two new films — ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Change-Up’ — premiered in the top five in this weekend’s best box-office earners, coming in at number one and number four, respectively.
Last weekend’s top films, ‘The Smurfs’ and ‘Cowboys & Aliens,’ moved to the second and third-place slots.
Here’s a recap of all five of this weekend’s best box-office earners.
The Harrison Ford/Daniel Craig sci-fi vehicle ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ tied with ‘The Smurfs’ for first place at the box office, with each taking in $36.2 million in their debut weekend.
The blockbuster ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2′ dropped to fourth, earning a total of $318.4 million in the three weeks since its release, while ‘Friends with Benefits,’ ‘Horrible Bosses,’ and ‘Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon’ dropped out of the top five.
No Megan Fox, no problem -- 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' still managed to rock the box office this holiday weekend.
The sexy star may not have returned for the third installment in the franchise, but it didn't matter because director Michael Bay's latest offering took in $116.1 million over the four-day holiday weekend, en route to winning the box office battle.
As expected, ‘Green Lantern’ was the number one movie at the box office this weekend, taking in a slightly underwhelming $52.7 million, according to weekend estimates.
That number marks the lowest opening for a superhero movie this summer, behind ‘Thor’ ($66 million) ‘X-Men: First Class’ ($56 million).
