Box office report
It seems the Terminator isn’t so unstoppable after all.
The family-friendly sequel “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” won the top spot at the Memorial Day weekend box office, beating out “Terminator Salvation,” the dark fourth film of the long-running R-rated franchise.
The second “Night at the Museum” film, starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams and Hank Azaria and distributed by 20th Century Fox, earned $70 million over the long weekend, according to the Associated Press. It far exceeded the debut of the first “Night at the Museum” movie, which made $30.4 million in its three-day opening in December 2006.
Warner Bros.’ “Terminator Salvation” raked in $53.8 million over the four-day holiday weekend – plus $13.4 million from Thursday screenings. That brought director McG’s take on the post-apocalyptic action series, starring Christian Bale, Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington, to second place and a total of $67.2 million since debuting.
The three-day total of $43 million ranks the fourth movie in the “Terminator” series behind “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” the last of the franchise’s installments to star California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The third chapter generated $44 million in its first weekend in 2003.
“I think people expected it to be No. 1 because of that ‘Terminator’ name alone,” box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com told the AP. “If you look at it objectively though, it’s a sci-fi action film that played to an older audience. It didn’t have the broad based appeal of ‘Night at the Museum.’”
The weekend’s other wide release, Paramount’s over-the-top spoof “Dance Flick,” took the No. 5 spot with $13.1 million. So far, it is the worst movie I have seen in 2009, so I think even that is too much.
But Paramout’s “Star Trek” seems to be capitalizing on its great reviews and word of mouth, and I couldn’t be happier about its success. It was in third place but made another $29.4 million, raising its total to $191 million. J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the venerable franchise sits on the cusp of becoming the year’s top-grossing movie so far, approaching the $193.5 million gross of the animated “Monsters vs. Aliens.”
It appears that “Star Trek” is living up to its initial promise as this year’s “Iron Man” – a big blockbuster with legs. My husband and I ventured out to see it a second time today and found a 2 p.m. screening sold out at one local theater, forcing us to drive to another cinema.
“‘Star Trek’ is living long and prospering,” Dergarabedian told the AP. “It’s just one of those movies we knew would hold up. People are enjoying it and talking about it. It’s unusual for a summer blockbuster to be propelled by word of mouth, not just the typical marketing push for a big opening weekend. I think it’s going to continue to do well week after week.”
The previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Sony’s “Angels & Demons,” fell to fourth place with $27.7 million. Its domestic take is now at $87.8 million.
Movie theaters continue to draw large crowds, as they have throughout this year of recession. Dergarabedian told the AP that the year-to-date attendance is running at a nearly 12 percent increase over last year. But 2007 remains the top Memorial Day weekend in box office history; the third installments of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Shrek” and “Spider-Man” all opened over the holiday two years ago.
Here are the top 10 movies from Friday through Monday, according to the AP:
1. “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” $70 million.
2. “Terminator Salvation,” $53.8 million.
3. “Star Trek,” $29.4 million.
4. “Angels & Demons,” $27.7 million.
5. “Dance Flick,” $13.1 million.
6. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” $10.1 million.
7. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” $4.8 million.
8. “Obsessed,” $2.5 million.
9. “Monsters vs. Aliens,” $1.9 million.
10. “17 Again,” $1.3 million.
-BAM
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Honestly, I thought Terminator Salvation would come out on top but there’s nothing like a family flick especially the only one in theateres as of now.