There are bad weekends in the movie business, and then there are BAD WEEKENDS.  Anyone want to guess which one this one was?

It’s rare for a movie to rise to the #1 spot after multiple weeks on the chart, but that’s exactly what happened with The Help this weekend when it pulled in $20.5 million.  It slid only 21% from last weekend, which is impressive for any film these days, but in three weekends the movie has pulled in a total of $71.8 million off of a $25 million budget, it is well into the profit region.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes fell 41.4% to $16.5 million and now sits at $133.7 million for a domestic total.  Not too shabby, and the fact it hasn’t fallen further probably only strengthens the sequel talk that has already been circulating.

It’s in the number three region of the list that the bloodbath that was this weekend kicks in.  The top new release of the was Spy Kids 4 with an anemic $12 million. Despite it’s somewhat modest budget of $27 million, it’s going to have a hard time hitting the $54 million needed to consider it a success. Why this series even came back is beyond me, but the box office numbers definitely prove out that I was not alone in my confusion.

Conan the Barbarian landed with a thud in fourth place with $10 million.  Seeing as it had a $90 million budget, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some news today of some executives being shown the door.  Jason Momoa in the title role always seemed a tad odd to me as he has no marquee titles to his name, and it’s doubtful anyone outside of Stargate: Atlantis fans even know who he is.

Coming in fifth was The Smurfs.  As if it wasn’t bad enough a couple weeks ago when it looked like this movie had beaten Cowboys & Aliens, this week the little blue creatures claimed another big name victim in the form of Fright Night. The kid friendly film pulled in another $8 million compared to the horror movie remake’s paltry $7.9 million. (I expect the final numbers to shift slightly)  Fright Night only had a $30 million dollar budget, but good luck making that back with this sort of debut.

If this weekend teaches us anything, it is next to impossible to predict what movie goes are in the mood for.  You could say remakes are now the kiss of death, but can’t you technically say then that Rise of the Planet of the Apes shouldn’t be doing so well?  Overall, something is afoot at the box office, and it’s time for the studios to be taking a few more lessons from these failures.

Next week will see three new releases, but none of them look like the type to take the box office by storm. Colombiana, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Our Idiot Brother all look set to ring out the end of the summer with a full thud.

This summer hasn’t seen many movies hold on to the top spot two weekends in a row, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes has joined that exclusive little club.

Falling 49.8% in its second weekend, Rise of the Planet of the Apes brought in an estimated $27.5 million to bring its domestic total to $104.8 million.  This has only increased talk over the past week of a potential sequel with several concepts already being thrown around as to what the story may be.  With a $93 million dollar budget, it still seems a bit premature, but that’s Hollywood for you.

Coming in second was The Help with an estimated $25.5 million. The film actually opened on Wednesday, so it’s total gross for the first five days is a healthy $35.3 million, but no word yet on what the production costs were. Speculation runs, however, that the film is doing very well, and is tracking ahead of similar releases of the past few years such as Julie & Julia.

Debuting in third position was Final Destination 5 with $18.4 million, and the first film in the series to open with a weaker weekend than its predecessor. Not a good sign for the aging horror franchise, so it looks like it may be time to consider retiring it.

The Smurfs had another bit of a surprising weekend, falling only 34.8% for its third weekend, and brining in another $13.5 million. You can all relax, a sequel has already been announced. I will now try to pretend to be shocked by this news … okay, that’s not working.

Rounding out the top five was the debut of 30 Minutes or Less with a paltry $13 million dollar take. This never bodes well for a new release. Take for instance, The Change-Up which opened in fourth last week with $15.7 million. It slid 54% this week to take the 10th spot with $6.2 million.

The big surprise for me was Glee The 3D Concert Movie opened in 11th with only $5.7 million. I really was expecting this one to be the dark horse of the week due to its television popularity, but no dice.

Next week is another big set of releases in terms of quantity.  Be on the lookout for Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night, One Day and Spy Kids 4.  The original Fright Night was one of my favorite 1980′s horror movies, so I’m not too thrilled to see this coming back.

Despite it being ten years since there was anything for the Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes took the top spot at the box office this weekend.

The original Planet of the Apes series ended in 1973, and the remake was released in 2001, so my feelings were that a prequel of sorts to a series most of today’s movie audience wasn’t that familiar with wouldn’t do well, but yet Rise of the Planet of the Apes brought in a healthy $54 million this weekend. Where this fits into the overall Apes mythos is odd in that is envisioned to be an origin story of sorts to the original 1968 film, it contradicts the fourth film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, that told of the rise of Ceaser. Seeing how the film did this weekend, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a whole new series launch out of this film. (Here ends my nerdy knowledge of the Planet of the Apes series.)

Coming in second was The Smurfs with a respectable 41% fall off in business from its opening to weekend to land with $21 million. Seeing as an average second weekend fall is 50%, this film is performing surprisingly well.

Not performing as well was last weeks top spot holder, Cowboys & Aliens which fell 56.8% to $15.7 million. The concept was unique for sure, but it appears that film goers were not all that interested in this concept.

The Change-Up opened up in fourth place with $15.7 million. Perhaps it is time for Hollywood to realize that people are bored with body swap stories, but it’s doubtful that will stop them from going back to this forumla time and time again.

Wrapping up the top five was Captain America: The First Avenger with $13 million in its third weekend.

Next week is a busy one with The Help opening on Wednesday and 30 Minutes or Less, Final Destination 5 and Glee The 3D Concert Movie hitting on the weekend.

Green Lantern?  Out of the theaters completely.  No more train wreck for us.

In what is sure to turn in to a day long battle of pennies, two films tied for the top box office spot this weekend: Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs.

One thing to remember with these top box office reports each week is they are based off of estimates until much later in the day on Monday.  The projections are usually fairly accurate, but when you have two films tie for the top spot, you end up with a day long battle of furious accounting to figure out which one actually came out on top.

Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs are both initially reporting box office receipts of $36.2 million.  No matter what, the former was expecting a bigger weekend more in the range of $45 million, but the latter actually came in a bit ahead.

Captain America: The First Avenger took a 62 percent hit, falling to $24.9 million.  This keeps it ahead of Thor, but not by much.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 came in fourth, falling another 54 percent to $21.9 million. It became the top grossing film in the series on Friday, and has also passed $1 billion globally, but it is running behind based on attendance. This has got to become the leading metric someday for the business side of things over the finances.

Coming in in firth place was the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love which brought in $19.3 million.

Green Lantern? 26th place with $166,000 for a new domestic total of $114.3 million. For a fun comparison, Thor came out more than a month earlier and was in 23rd place with $203,000.

Next week sees the release of The Change-Up and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I know next to nothing about the first one, but I really have no clue how the prequel to the Planet of the Apes will do. It seems like a really odd pull at this point.

UPDATE: Cowboys & Aliens brought in $36.4 million to The Smurfs $35.6.  

Adding to Green Lantern’s shame, Rio – an animated move released in April and coming out on DVD tomorrow – played in more theaters and brought in $560 more.