Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011): Tops Weekend Box Office at $54 Million; WorldWide At $77.4 million

The Apes have overrun the movie theaters this past weekend as Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes comes in at an estimated $54 million for its domestic debut this weekend.

Update: Apes, with a budget of around $93 million, grossed an estimated $23.4 million overseas, bringing the total so far to $77.4 million.

This easily tops the previous week’s sci-fi flick that saw Cowboys & Aliens, barely beat The Smurfs. Speaking of the little blue guys, The Smurfs came in at #2, with Cowboys at the #3 position this weekend.

Back to Apes, Friday’s domestic opening saw the movie gross an estimate of $19.7 million. Saturday didn’t see much of a drop – if any- as estimates for that day put Apes at $19.4 million. Sundays is estimated to bring another $14.9 million.

Apparently, this was a big surprise to some as Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was thought to bring in similar numbers to Super 8‘s $35.4 million debut; however, it is interesting to note that the 1991 Planet Of The Apes, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Tim Burton, opened at $68 million.

Clearly, there is an audience out there for not only the Apes franchise, but well-written sci-fi movies as Apes has garnished an 81% approval rating over at Rotten Tomatoes. 

A quick note in regards to this week’s #4 and #5: The Change Up starring Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern) only brought in around $13.5 million, with Captain America: First Avenger right behind at $13 million.

Numbers sources: The Collider, ComingSoon.net and BoxOfficeMoJo