weekend box office

A new release, the futuristic Hugh Jackman boxing tale ‘Real Steel,’ took in $27.3 million to become the top earner at the box office this weekend.

It was neck-and-neck for a while, but in the end, the family-friendly ‘Dolphin Tale’ bested the Brad Pitt baseball-saga, ‘Moneyball,’ to take the top-earning spot at the box office this weekend.

Seventeen years after its initial box-office run, ‘The Lion King’ is again reigning supreme. The new 3D incarnation of the film, currently in a limited-engagement run, took in another $22 million to land atop the charts for the second weekend in a row.

In a limited engagement in 3D, the 1994 Disney classic, ‘The Lion King,’ earned $29 million to take the top spot at the box office this weekend. ‘Contagion,’ last week’s most popular movie, moved to second place, while Ryan Gosling’s ‘Drive’ took third in its debut week. Former box office champ ‘The Help’ came in fourth, and ‘Straw Dogs’ rounded out the top five.

Earning a total of $123 million at the box office in the month since its release, ‘The Help’ kept its number one spot in theaters for the third week in a row, becoming the first film to do so since last summer’s ‘Inception.’

In its second week of release, strong word-of-mouth and positive reviews propelled ‘The Help’ past ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ to take the number one spot at the box office this weekend, while ‘Apes’ moved to the number two slot. ‘The Help’ earned $20.5 million, while ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ pulled in $16.3 million.

‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ was number one again this week, joining ‘Thor’ and ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ as one of only three films this summer to hold the top spot for two weekends in a row. The film adaptation of the best-selling novel, ‘The Help,’ came in second, with horror flick ‘Final Destination 5,’ previous weekend box-office champ ‘The Smurfs,’ and the low-budget action comedy

Two new films — ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Change-Up’ — premiered in the top five in this weekend’s best box-office earners, coming in at number one and number four, respectively. Last weekend’s top films, ‘The Smurfs’ and ‘Cowboys & Aliens,’ moved to the second and third-place slots. Here’s a recap of all five of this weekend’s best box-office earners.

The Harrison Ford/Daniel Craig sci-fi vehicle ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ tied with ‘The Smurfs’ for first place at the box office, with each taking in $36.2 million in their debut weekend. The blockbuster ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2′ dropped to fourth, earning a total of $318.4 million in the three weeks since its release, while ‘Friends with Benefits,’ ‘Horrible Bosses,’ and ‘Trans

No Megan Fox, no problem -- 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' still managed to rock the box office this holiday weekend. The sexy star may not have returned for the third installment in the franchise, but it didn't matter because director Michael Bay's latest offering took in $116.1 million over the four-day holiday weekend, en route to winning the box office battle.

Though it wasn't what one might call a "super" performance, J.J. Abrams' alien-adventure movie 'Super 8' took the top spot at the box office this weekend with a healthy $37.0 million, opening slightly higher than expected. That was more than enough to edge out last week's champ, 'X-Men: First Class,' which dipped 55 percent to earn just $25.0 million.

As many predicted, 'X-Men: First Class' easily took the top spot at the box office this weekend. Still, the Marvel reboot, which traced the beginnings of the 'X-Men' characters, managed to fall well below expectations, taking in just $56.0 million. To put things in perspective: That's the lowest debut by an 'X-Men' movie since the franchise launched in 2000, with $54.5 million.