"Night at the Museum" Rules the Box Office

Ben Stiller showed he still has a Santa in his corner when it comes to his Christmas releases. His offering this Christmas, A Night at the Museum, has finished the opening weekend at the top of the box office heap, beating down other seasoned performers and slotting a cool $30.8 million into the cash registers at 20th Century Fox. At last count on Monday, the numbers had shot up to $42.2 million.

Ben has been known for his outrageous comedy flicks and his penchant for downloading one movie too many on his unsuspecting fans and the viewing public in general. (Remember the year 2004, when we got to see not one, not two, but six Stiller movies?) However, come Christmas and Stiller has been the winner. If in 2004 it was Meet the Fockers, in 2006 it is Night at the Museum.

The movie itself is a comedy targeted at the kids, this being the Christmas season, and revolves around the story of a museum keeper who is harassed by the antics of the museum pieces, all of which come to life at night. With a star cast that also includes Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, and Robin Williams, the movie beat a couple of other heavy weights to the top spot.

Stiller has always been the underdog from Philadelphia, and his impressive showing yet again, beating other movies boasting of stars like Will Smith, Cameron Diaz, and Angelina Jolie, not to mention Sly Stallone himself, must have turned quite a few Hollywood heads.

Talking of Sly Stallone, his grand finale and the sixth and last movie in the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa must have given him enough reason to smile. After being turned down by quite a few studios just a few years back, Sly has had the pleasure of seeing his movie perched at the #3 spot, just below Night at the Museum and The Pursuit of Happyness. Rocky Balboa netted a cool $12.6 million, while The Pursuit of Happyness, which starred Will Smith, took in $15 million.

Rounding off the top five were The Good Shepherd and Charlotte’s Web, grossing $9.9 million and $8 million, respectively. Both these were disappointments, if one were to base judgment on the pre-release hype and expectation surrounding them, and the fact that both have heavy duty stars on their rosters.

The Good Shepherd is a spy thriller starring the likes of Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie, and Robert de Niro, while Charlotte’s Web shares its title with one of the most popular children’s books of all times, and has in its cast Julia Roberts, Robert Redford, Andre 3000, and Dakota Fanning.

Another movie entered low in the charts, but will surely climb upwards over the coming days was Dreamgirls. The movie grossed $8.7 million on a single day on Monday, entering the charts at a cozy #7.