Ben Stiller had no problem handling Christian Bale and an army of robots this Memorial Day weekend. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian cruised to an easy first-place finish of $70 million over the four-day weekend, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. The total marks Stiller’s biggest opening ever, as the PG-rated comedy clearly caught the attention of families looking for non-violent (and just a wee bit educational) entertainment. Smithsonian’s tally also demolishes its predecessor, Night at the Museum, which opened its doors to a $42.2 million gross over a four-day Christmas weekend in 2006.
Settling for No. 2 was Terminator Salvation, which earned $53.8 million over the four-day weekend (plus $13.4 million from its debut on Thursday, bringing its five-day gross to $67.2 million). Warner Bros. will boast about Salvation representing the Terminator series’ best opening, beating Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine’s three-day tally of $44 million in July 2003. But as impressive as Salvation’s earnings may be, it could have trouble in the forthcoming weeks. The film’s numbers dropped from Friday to Saturday, a rarity that could signal disappointing word of mouth.
Both Star Trek (No. 3 with $29.4 million) and Angels and Demons (No. 4 with $27.7 million) registered solid results, dropping only 47 percent and 53 percent, respectively, from last weekend. Trek, in particular, is holding up extremely well — the sci-fi reboot is closing in on $200 million and should take over Monsters vs. Aliens this week to become 2009’s top moneymaker.
Dance Flick rounded out the top five with $13.1 million, which is a respectable outcome for the modestly budgeted spoof movie from the Wayans family.
On the indie scene, Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, starring the adult-film actress Sasha Grey, scored an okay $200,000 from 30 theaters. Easy Virtue, the 1920s-era romantic comedy featuring Jessica Biel, roared to $146,000 from just 10 theaters for a healthy average of $14,600 per theater. Also, the con film The Brothers Bloom expanded to 52 theaters, stealing $528,000 and averaging just more than $10,000 per theater.
Overall, the box office was up 2% compared to last year’s Memorial Day weekend, when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, despite nuking the fridge, managed to whip up a staggering $126.9 million.
More Box Office News:
Box Office Preview: ‘Terminator Salvation’ and ‘Night at the Museum 2′ square off
Angels & Demons summons a $48 million bow
Star Trek soars with $72.5 mil debut
Wolverine opens with an impressive $87 million
EW.com’s Box Office Chart
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I hate May for being overcrowded with summer movies! Stupid June has nothing!!!
Hopefully, “Up” will make little tykes forget about Ben Stiller.
GETTYMOVIE … It turns out J.P. Getty may have been a Nazi; His family even goes back to Germany …. With Hitler, GÖring & Goebbels he did stand; While trying to undermine the American land!
For paintings & artifacts he did receive; With his oil he was able to deceive? Hoover & the FBI & Roosevelt they knew … That J.P. Getty & espionage he drew! Many a young lad and Jew did die; As planes dropped bombs from the sky.
For years while Getty sat in Berlin
He may have committed many a sin.
The ashes and smoke from the chimneys it rose; While old man Getty sat cozy … he chose. With artwork held tightly under his arm; Still dripping in blood … as the real owner met harm.
Into the ovens & on meat-hooks, bullets between the eyes … Listen very carefully you can still hear their cries! While the Gettys sit in England; at their estate at Wormsley;
And Gordon sings in San Francisco …
With his 727 in tow; The Getty museum sits atop Malibu; While the corpses of WW2 scream JP Getty we know you!
I heard T4 was “TOO F DISTRACTING!”
http://tvdonewright.com/2009-2010-season-preview/
Christian Bale is overrated… He is not in the level of Will Smith and To Cruise… he is not even a shia labeouf… EW crowned him because of Dark Knights success… the only reason that movie was huge because everyone wanted to see the guy who killed himself
‘tebow’,stick to what you know best; Hannah Montana and American Idol.
‘tebow’,stick to what you know best; Hannah Montana and American Idol.
tebow, you wanna talk overrated? Your precious Will Smith is hands down the most overrated actor in Hollywood today, a title that was once previously held by none other than Tom Cruise. Do you even understand what the word overrated means?
I gotta agree with Dave on this one.
How is Christian Bale overrated…? I think Tom Cruise is heavily overrated. Glad to see Star Trek has held up so well
Goes to show all the haters.
To dave:
I don’t necessarily agree with Will Smith being an overrated actor, or at least the most overrated in Hollywood. In his last few films, it’s easy to see his growth and improved acting range compared to his Fresh Prince days. His appeal also manages to place butts in seats, which is something Tom Cruise has trouble doing nowadays. My only real criticisms with Smith are his nepotism (though Pursuit of Happiness gets a pass), him trying to remake the Karate Kid with Jaden and Jackie Chan, and him not willing to kiss another man when he played a gay male in Six Degrees of Separation.
As for Christian Bale, his acting shines more on his lesser works instead of his blockbuster hits. Although he did fine as John Connor in Salvation, his role was pretty limited compared to Sam Worthington’s Marcus, so Bale wasn’t able to shine as much as he could have.
I tried to go see T4 but Christian Bale’s Ego was too large for me to fit in the theatre.
Star Trek might be doing better than T4 next weekend.
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t3hdow wrote:
“My only real criticisms with Smith are his nepotism (though Pursuit of Happiness gets a pass), him trying to remake the Karate Kid with Jaden and Jackie Chan, and him not willing to kiss another man when he played a gay male in Six Degrees of Separation.”
My response: Nepotism and remakes are common in modern Hollywood so Smith is no better or worse than the crowd on that level. As for Six Degrees, it’s Smith’s lips so he shouldn’t feel guilty for not planting them on every co-star in his films.
I watched T4 & didn’t like it, plus my sister-in-laws said Night at the Museum 2 was HORRIBLE!!!! I think Shawn Levy should of directed The Pink Panther 2, instead of Museum 2!
McG had a name brand franchise, the hottest actor of the past few years, super-CG action, and a holiday weekened. Yet he STILL couldn’t best a bunch of talking monkeys and dinosaurs? Epic fail.
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I saw T4 over the weekend. I’m a huge fan of the Terminator series (even T3), but this was probably the weakest one. I was worried about setting it in the future to begin with, and having a grown-up John who hardly even interacts with the Terminator didn’t really work. But the biggest problem: the movie had no heart. It really was all machine and mayhem. The best Terminator movies of the past had a bit of heart to go with the destruction. That’s why Star Trek is still doing so well, and why it’s my fav film of the year so far.
How wonderful it is to see a class act like “Star Trek” rake in the megabucks at the box office. For once, a truly fine film gets critical and popular acclaim. Long live “Star Trek!”
Yay Star Trek!
Great to see Star Trek holding up so well. My husband and I finally saw it this weekend – great reboot!
Though Museum 2 is alot like the first one, I enjoyed every second of it, especially watching the cupids! Love them! They’re the Jonas, aren’t they? Sounds soulful…
See the movie online here!!
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I saw T-4, was disapointed. The John Connors’ character could have been played by any actor. The whole feel of the movie felt out of place. I did not like any of the characters, especially John Connors’. However, I did enjoy the role of the deaf girl, she had more heart and guts than all the other characters.
Took in to see the T4 with no high expectations. Was a great action film in every sense of the word. Non stop action for those who enjoy a rocking good time. More character driven story would have been even more great. But all in all, it was a great ride.
saw T4, thought it was great. was mostly a great action film, but it did have heart. sam worthington did a great job, bale was solid in a less emotional role. overall, connor grew into the leader we expected. of course movie would be different now that it was in the future. more of a war movie, but it progressed the story just fine, still kept some of the feel of the first two. i also viewed it as more of an action set up to a sequel that would give more background on connor/kyle reese relationship.
To Fred2:
I get the nepotism/remake points, but part of the Six Degrees role was written for the actor to kiss another male. Not that I’m disappointed he refused, but if he’s willing to let that scare him off, I’m a little worried at how dedication towards his future roles. Worse yet, if that makes him iffy, imagine how much he & Spielberg might butcher the Oldboy remake, because he might not be cool with the original film’s risque content. Granted, none of this will keep me from Will Smith’s films if I’m interested, but this bothers me, nonetheless.
To Rob Grizzly:
WTF? How is Salvation’s box office an epic fail when
a) It made more than T3’s 44 mil opening weekend (approx. 50% more)
b) It’s generally more well liked than T3 and
c) It’s opening versus a sequel of a popular family film, which almost always beats the other movies opening the same weekend? If a 3 million margin is what you consider a massive failure, I’m glad I’m not your future kid.
What great summer for fantasy and sci-fi. We’ve had Wolverine,and the wonderful new Star Trek. Even online, the guys at pyramidsofmars.com have finally published the last chapter of their online novel. So, now with Terminator and Night at the Museum out, I’m waiting on Transformers!!