Every year, the time between May and August is always considered a heavy season for big blockbuster-style films. But this year has been like that on steroids. Normally, there are a handful of big films that carry fanboys and fangirls throughout the summer season, but this year we had one just about every week consistently from the beginning of May.

That fact alone has got to be why when two large, previously established franchises hit theaters, neither open in the box office’s top 3. That’s what happened this weekend, as the independent comedy The Help came in at the number 1 spot with just over $20 million.

Just after that, Fox’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes managed to stay strong at #2 with $16 million. Of the 3 big releases this weekend, we didn’t expect Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids: All the Time in the World to open as big as the #3 spot with an estimated $12 million, but it did.

Lionsgate’s hope at revitalizing the Conan the Barbarian franchise to a younger, edgier audience seemed to have failed, sadly, as the film had a soft opening of $10 million at the #4 spot. Even sadder is the fact that Buena Vista’s Fright Night barely missed the top 5 as it opened at #6 with just under $8 million.

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It’s always nice when a smaller, lesser known film that has the same release date as a comedy, horror, and a Live 3D concert ends up pulling in the most money for the weekend. Things like this need to happen more.

That’s exactly what happened this weekend as The Help beat out its competitors 30 Minutes or Less, Final Desintation 5, and Glee The 3D Concert Movie for the prized 2nd place spot in the domestic box office.

Of course, given the stunning word of mouth, Rise of the Planet of the Apes pulled through to be #1 again for the second week with an estimated $27.5 million here in the states. That rounds the film out at about $180 million worldwide since it first hit theaters last week.

Meanwhile, Buena Vista’s The Help ended up sliding in at #2 with $25 million. That beat out the other films opening this weekend, including Final Destination 5 which came in at #3 with $18.5 million, 30 Minutes or Less, which came in at number 5 with $13 million and Glee 3D which completely flopped at #11 with $5.7 million.

Next weekend, another barn burner as Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night open to 3,000 screens, while Robert Ridriguez makes his return to the family action flick with Spy Kids: All the Time in the World. Should be fun!

While this past week had a few fun trailers, unfortunately there wasn’t anything that I’m going to be waiting in line opening night to see.  It seems that we have fully transitioned out of the exciting summer films and are now getting prepared for the mediocre releases that didn’t quite make the summer block.

This week we have a couple big budget films that I feel obligated to talk about, a couple smaller indies I’m a little more excited for, and — Moon Nazis!

Real Steel

Click to see the trailer

There was an early teaser that came out for this last year, but this is the first chance that we really get to see the story of this film.  On one level you instantly want to dismiss this film as “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie,” sure to be filled with terrible dialogue and cheesy one-liners.  But on another level you hope that this interesting premise might actually turn out to be a fresh take on inspiring boxing films.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men, The Prestige) is usually pretty decent in whatever he does, but who I would be most interested to see is Evangeline Lilly in this role, who is most famous as Kate from Lost.  Although she was in The Hurt Locker for a bit, this will definitely be her biggest step into features.

While part of me is excited to see some fun robot violence, I feel ultimately this film has to disappoint.  Everyone is going to be expecting Transformers quality CGI, but there is no way they had the budget to pull that off.  And, I get the feeling that people are going to want this film to have more heart that it will end up having.

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Previously, we brought you the first info on the upcoming reboot of the classic horror film Fright Night along with some early casting news. Now, the number of actors in the new film has increased by two. According to Heat Vision, David Tennant, best known for the BBC series Doctor Who and Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad and Kick-Ass fame have joined the film.

The two actors are now part of a cast which already includes Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell and Toni Colette who are playing Charlie, an evil vampire and Charlie’s disbelieving Mom respectively. Tennant will play Peter Vincent, a late-night horror show host made famous by the late Roddy McDowall in the original film. In the rebooted version, Tennant instead plays a Las Vegas magician whose act centers on horror movie images.

Vincent, of course, claims to be a vampire expert, but when Charlie asks him for help with Colin Farrell’s evil vampness and his Mom’s recent attraction to the vamps, it turns out his vampire hunting skills leave something to be desired. Mintz-Plasse will star as Charlie’s friend, Evil Ed, who feels slighted when Charlie leaves his nerdy past, and his friend, behind. As revenge, Ed joins the vampires and becomes a nemesis for Charlie.

The film, written by former Buffy scribe Mari Noxon and directed by Craig Gillespie, is expected to hit theaters sometime in 2011.

With Zoe Saldana making an appearance in the upcoming The Losers, another Star Trek alumi is jumping into a feature film role away from the franchise. According to THR, Anton Yelchin, best known as Ensign Checkov in J.J. Abrams Start Trek, will take on a lead role in another iconic reboot, Dreamworks’s upcoming Fright Night.

As we told you previously, former Buffy writer Marti Noxon has written the script for the reboot and Craig Gillespie, recently of Lars and the Real Girl, will be handling the directing duties. The new version will reportedly stick closely to the original concept of a teen, Charlie Brewster (Yelchin) being convinced that his new neighbor is a vampire, although no one will believe him. It’s not until he enlists the aid of a late night horror show host that things start to get very real in a hurry.

Yelchin seems to like to stick to genre movies having been in Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation as Kyle Reese. With what he showed in both films, he’s a pretty talented guy and if a reboot of Fright Night has to be made, he’ll most likely do justice to the role originally made famous by William Ragsdale.

DreamWorks Studios, with plans for a Fright Night remake, have signed Mad Men writer-producer Marti Noxon to write the script about a horror-obsessed teen who thinks his neighbor means something altogether different when sipping some red.

Noxon, no stranger to vampires herself since she was a writer-producer for both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it’s spin-off Angel, will keep the comedy/horror vibe the original had when it was released in 1985, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film went on to be a surprise box office hit, trailing only A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge in the horror department that summer.

Producers Michael De Luca, Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig had signed onto the project back in May of this year, while overseeing the project for DreamWorks will be co-president of production Mark Sourian. No word on a potential release date or casting as of yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

We shouldn’t really be surprised about any remakes or reboots these days. With the new Star Trek out recently and reboots of films like Predator and Dune in the works, its just a matter of time before someone dusts off another old project ripe for an update. In this case, according to an article at The Hollywood Reporter, that project is the 1985 horror “classic” Fright Night – which Dreamworks has the rights to and is currently in the process of developing an updated version.

In case you’re not familiar with the original horror-comedy film written and directed by Tom Holland and featuring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall, it concerns a teenager who discovers that his neighbors are vampires. Then, once he realizes that they are, with the help of his girlfriend and a washed-up horror TV show host, he has to destroy the vampires before they take over the town.

According to the article, no writer has been hired but the updated version will keep the comedy-horror tone while modernizing the visual and make-up effects. In the scope of things, I guess its a good thing Dreamworks is taking this on. If a remake or reboot has to be made, it seems like that studio could probably do it justice. At the moment, no other information about the Fright Night remake is available. But when there is, we’ll bring it to you.