Top 10 for December 22-24, 2006 Summary: Sunday estimates are in.
Ben Stiller and a host of museum artifacts gone wild stampeded the Christmas weekend, as Fox's family-friendly comedy Night at the Museum debuted with an estimated $30.8 million over the Friday-Sunday portion of the Holiday weekend, and an even more impressive $42.2 million over the four-day frame. With schools on break and families looking for weekend entertainment, the PG-rated pic averaged a very strong $8,358 in 3,685 theaters (including IMAX theaters), nearly doubling its next closest competitor The Pursuit of Happyness. Though failing to surpass the $46.1 million three-day bow of his 2004 comedy sequel Meet the Fockers, Stiller's Night finished slightly above industry estimates which had pegged the film to finish in the mid-$20 million range. Despite mixed-to-poor reviews, expect Night to continue to pull in strong totals throughout the Holiday-New Year frame.
Will Smith's feel good drama The Pursuit of Happyness, based on a true story, slipped to second with an estimated $15 million over three days and $23 million over the four-day Holiday frame. Slipping 44% from its debut weekend, the Sony release brought its eleven-day cume to an impressive $61.4 million. At its current pace, look for the $55m budgeted Happyness to finish very close to $100 million domestically.
Opening in third was Sylvester Stallone's comeback sequel Rocky Balboa, which took in surprisingly solid reviews to pull in an estimated $12.5 million in three days and $26.7 million over the six days since its Wednesday debut. Budgeted at a modest $24 million, the film averaged a solid $4,143 in a wide 3,017 theaters. Compared with the previous five Rocky pictures, Rocky Balboa posted the best opening ever for the series. The highest grossing film is still the 1985's Rocky IV, which debuted with $20 million on its way to $127.9 million domestically.
Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie's CIA thriller The Good Shepherd bowed with an estimated $10 million in fourth, averaging $4,505 in just 2,215 theaters. Directed by Robert De Niro, making his directorial debut, the R-rated Universal film received mixed reviews from critics and could have difficulties finding any sort of traction over the Holiday frame and beyond.
In fifth place was Paramount's well-reviewed family film Charlotte's Web, which slipped 30% to an estimated $8 million over three days, pushing its eleven-day take to $28.3 million. A lump of coal was given to Fox's brutally-reviewed fantasy adventure Eragon, which fell a precipitous 69% in its sophomore frame to an estimated $7.2 million. In eleven days the $100 million budgeted film has grossed just $39.8 million.
Opening in seventh was the poorly-reviewed football drama We Are Marshall, which took in an estimated $6.6 million from 2,606 theaters for a weak $2,548 average. Distributed by Warner Bros, the Matthew McConaughey-starrer should find a quick exit out of the top ten in the coming weeks.
Three films performed admirably in limited release this weekend, including Zhang Yimou's martial arts epic The Curse of the Golden Flower, Clint Eastwood's Flags followup Letters from Iwo Jima and Alphonse Cuaron's Children of Men. Sony Pictures Classics' Golden Flower led with an estimated $479,000 in 60 theaters for an encouraging $7,983 average. Eastwood's critically-acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima, which has landed in virtually every film critics top ten list for 2006, took in a very impressive $76,500 in just five theaters for a $15,300 average, while The Children of Men debuted with $177,000 over the Holiday weekend.
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