Saturday update:
As Charlton Heston's marooned astronaut George Tayler might say, "Chalk up another victory to the human spirit!"
And chalk up another loss for pre-release tracking, with Fox's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" opening to a much stronger than expected $19.8 millon Friday, according to studio estimates.
That puts the $93 million origins film on pace for as much as $55 million this weekend — or about $20 million more than what was expected for the seventh film in a franchise kicked off by Charlton Heston 43 years ago.
Not that this one was entirely unexpected, with critics collectively praising the James Franco-led "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" with an 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.