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Early Friday returns indicate that The Help will gross around $14 million for the four-day holiday weekend. By Monday, the female-fueled drama will have jumped $120 million mark--exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. DreamWorks and Participant Media produced and co-financed the $25 million movie.

The good news for Hollywood: summer movie revenues are up worldwide as studios rebounded from a dismally slow start to the year. The bad news: Domestically, revenues rose only a fraction compared to the previous year's, while actual movie attendance dropped for the fourth-straight year.

This is a story about 'The Worst Movie EVER!' and its unprecedented $11 opening weekend. They only sold one ticket, and nobody seems to know who bought that ticket.

“The Help” continues to clean up at the box office, taking over the No. 1 spot with $20.5 million in its second weekend. The drama about Southern black maids had debuted in second-place a week earlier. “The Help” raised its domestic total to $71.8 million and bumped “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which slipped to No. 2 with $16.3 million after two weekends at the top.

Every one of my sources had a different Top 5 list all day -- and there wasn't even a consensus until tonight that DreamWorks' holdover The Help (which needs none) is Friday's No. 1 movie. The problem was that the new releases -- Dimension/Weinstein Co's Spy Kids 4D, Nu Image/Millenium/Lionsgate's Conan The Barbarian, and DreamWorks/Disney's Fright Night are all bunched together behind another holdover, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Rebellious apes have held off Southern maids for a narrow win at the weekend box office. Studio estimates Sunday pegged “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” at $27.5 million, good enough for its second-straight No. 1 finish. The movie raised its 10-day total to $104.9 million. The “Planet of the Apes” prequel came in just ahead of “The Help,” a drama about Mississippi maids during the civil-rights movement that debuted at No. 2 with $25.5 million. “The Help” has taken in $35.4 million since opening Wednesday.

Domestic box office took a few unexpected turns this weekend (i.e. DreamWorks' standout crowdpleaser "The Help," with $25.5 million), while the B.O.'s reigning champ "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" not surprisingly held on to the top spot, grossing a solid $27.5 million in its second frame for a domestic cume approaching $105 million.

Now here’s some monkey business that everyone in Hollywood will take seriously! Rise of the Planet of the Apes conquered the box office with a tremendous $54 million in its debut weekend. The $90 million Fox reboot/prequel exceeded all expectations and churned out the fifth-best August opening of all time. And it did it all without any of that pesky 3D!

The final “Harry Potter” may not have had the magic to stay No. 1 at the domestic box office past its first week. But worldwide, the film has now crossed the $1 billion mark, a feat only eight other films have accomplished.

Little blue Smurfs and not-so-little green men from space are in a photo finish for the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office. According to studio estimates Sunday, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford’s sci-fi Western “Cowboys & Aliens” and the animated family adventure “The Smurfs” both opened with $36.2 million. That leaves Sony’s “Smurfs” and Universal’s “Cowboys & Aliens” tied for the top spot. Actual weekend rankings won’t be sorted out until final numbers are counted Monday.