Friday update: Disney's estimate for The Help on Thursday is $4.3 million, which pushes the drama's total to $9.8 million. A final figure will be released later today.

Thursday update: Disney has released an early estimate of $5.5 million for The Help on Wednesday. We're predicting a $26.5 million haul by the end of the weekend.

Word-of-mouth is very strong. The overall CinemaScore rating is an A+. On Flixster, nearly 13,000 users have combined to give The Help a rating of 89%.

Check back later for more updates.