Hi Casey
You have almost answered your own question. You have found that the totals work in other sections of your report and that is the answer.
Usually the total would be expected at the end of the report, so most of the time this is where calculated fields are put - in the Report Footer. Another possibility is in a Group Footer giving the totals relating to a particular group of fields (this may go over more than one page in some circumstances).
Page Footers don't work with totals - what would they be totalling? The records on that particular page, the records on that and previous pages, all the records on the report?
I think you have to use one of the two other alternatives - Report Footer or Group Footer.
HTH
Rich Gorvin