The barbarian hordes are proving to be no match for polite Southern society at the weekend box office.
DreamWorks' "The Help" enjoyed a solid second Friday, grossing $5.8 million, according to one rival studio's estimate. It's on pace to drop less than 20 percent from its opening and gross around $21 million for the weekend.
Lionsgate's remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1982 breakout film, "Conan the Barbarian," meanwhile, failed to lift the bar. The R-rated film, produced by Avi Lerner's Millennium/Nu Image for a cost of around $70 million, grossed just $3.7 million Friday, according to rival-studio tally. It was projected to gross in the low to mid teens, but it probably won't even crack double figures for the weekend.
With Fox's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" grossing $4.7 million on its third Friday and occupying second place, it was The Weinstein Company's "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World" that was the only newcomer to challenge the holdovers.
The fourth installment of to the "Spy Kids" franchise — a series launched by Bob and Harvey Weinstein a decade ago at Miramax — grossed $3.9 million Friday. The $27 million PG film is on pace to gross about $12 million this weekend and meet pre-release projections.
As for the other wide openers, DreamWorks' remake of the 1985 vampire comedy "Fright Night" proved short of blood, grossing just $3 million Friday. The film is on pace to only gross around $7 million for the weekend — about half of what it was projected to make — but it cost only about $17 million to produce.
Focus Features' romantic drama "One Day," meanwhile, opened to $1.9 million Friday. It's on pace to gross just over $5 million this weekend, the low side of pre-release projections.
