Weekend box-office: Another Night at the Museum

By Scott Rosenberg Jan 8, 2007, 1:05 GMT

My gosh, is this a trend studio executives need to worry about?  Folks would rather go spend a ‘Night at the Museum’ instead of to the movies?

Uhh, wait; everyone DID go to the movies this past weekend where they DID spend a ‘Night at the Museum.’

The Ben Stiller laugher topped the box office for the third week in a row this past weekend raking in $24 million from 3,730 locations giving it a grand total of approximately $164.1 million to date.

Popularity of movie is a good New Year gift for Ben Stiller whose last few films, ‘DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story’ (’04- $114.3 million); ‘Meet the Fockers’ (’04 -$279.2 million) have put him over the $100 million goal post and made him a “blockbuster” star.

In second place, another repeat from last week, Will Smith’s ‘The Pursuit of Happyness.’ The Sony/Columbia Pictures release through 3,027 locations brought in another $13 million bringing feel good movie to a four week release total of $124.2 million.

Inching up the charts in limited release, Universal’s 'Children of Men’ pops in third this weekend taking in $10.3 million from 1,209 theaters for a second week total take of $11.9 million.

And the only opening film to make the top five chart this weekend is Hilary Swank in ‘Freedom Writers’ released by Paramount. Taking in $9.7 million from 1,360 locations the biographical movie about a teacher who inspires her students may pick up steam on positive reviews of critics and awards “buzz” around Swank.

The only other opener that came close to the top ten was Cedrick the Entertainer’s ‘Code Name: The Cleaner’ which pulled in  $4,625,000 million from 1,736 locations putting it in eleventh place.

In fifth place, still in limited release by Paramount, the musical ‘Dreamgirls’ pulled in $8.8 million from 852 locations for a total four week take of $54.5 million.

Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Rocky Balboa’ is hanging on to its place in the top ten coming in ninth, taking in $6,268,000  from 3,018 locations.  Take was a drop of 41 percent from the week before. The production which cost $24 million to make, has so far, in its third release week pulled in $60,892,000 million.