Weekend Box Office: 'The Help' Battles 'Apes' and 'Glee 3D' Sings Backup

It was an exceptionally crowded weekend at the box office. Not only were there four new major releases on the weekend, but two holdovers from last weekend made the top five as well. Did any of these new releases beat the almighty apes that ruled the box office last weekend?

As it turns out, despite the four new releases this weekend, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" still took the top spot in its second weekend. A strong holdover helped it out, as the movie only dropped just under 50% to land at $27 million. That brings its cume over two weeks for a little over $104 million, which Fox has to be happy with.

A shocker at second place was "The Help," a dramedy about race relations in the South based on the New York Times bestseller. The Emma Stone and Viola Davis starrer earned $25.7 million over the three-day weekend, and $35.5 million over its first five days. Those numbers pretty soundly beat the tracking, thanks in part to the fact that the movie is reaching Tyler-Perry-esque numbers in the Southeast, according to Deadline.

"Final Destination 5" took third place, opening to what might look like a disappointing $18.5 million. When you compare it to the previous installment in the series, which took more than $25 million in its opening, the number looks bad. But $18.5 million falls in line with the first three movies, which each earned an opening haul in the mid-teens. However, it should be noted that this $18.5 million includes 3D ticket sales, so that makes the number a bit more disappointing. It's a shame, considering that this was a much better-reviewed movie than the last couple...we'll see if the holdover to the second weekend is good.

Fourth and fifth place were close, but for now it looks as though "The Smurfs" took fourth with a haul of $13.5 million. That puts the movie over $100 million after three weeks. That also puts new release "30 Minutes or Less" in fifth place with $13 million, a disappointing opening for this action-comedy from the director of "Zombieland." It seems that after the string of successful R-rated comedies earlier in the summer, audiences are burning out..."The Change-Up" only drew in another $6 million, and now "30 Minutes" looks to fall very short of its goal.

Also worth a mention is "Glee: The 3D Concert Movie," which opened this weekend. The movie opened to just $5.5 million and didn't place in the top 10, which many are considering a huge shock. I'm not all that surprised, and here's why: this is a movie that caters solely to hardcore fans of "Glee."

Of course the show gets a good number of viewers each week, but how many of those viewers wouldn't be watching if the show wasn't delivered to the TV in their home for free? I know I wouldn't be.

Then, when you take away the people who went and saw the show live and might not have felt the need to go see the movie in the first weekend, you have a recipe for a movie that won't make much past the first day. Luckily, the budget for this movie was reportedly under $10 million, so it's likely to still make a profit in the long run.

1. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" - $27 million
2. "The Help" - $25.7 million
3. "Final Destination 5" - $18.5 million
4. "The Smurfs" - $13.5 million
5. "30 Minutes or Less" - $13 million