Box office report: 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' dominates with $54 million

From ew [excerpt], 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!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes played primarily to an older male crowd. According to exit polling, 56 percent of the audience was male, while 59 percent were over the age of 25. Notably, 20 percent of the audience was at least 50 years old—perhaps fans of the original 1968 film. For the most part, viewers liked what they saw, as they gave Rise a strong “A-” CinemaScore grade. The success of Rise serves all of its stars well. James Franco rebounded from the lackuluster performance of Your Highness, which only grossed $21.6 million earlier this year, and he likely has a new blockbuster franchise to star in while he pursues artsy side projects, Frieda Pinto finally has another hit under her belt after her only other wide release, Slumdog Millionaire, and Andy Serkis proved that motion-capture may be a viable pursuit at the box office.

Full report here