‘Night’ rocks the Holiday Box Office… Again.

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 2, 2007

Last year it was as if no one film could get in between the terrible twosome of King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia over the Christmas/New Year’s season. But leave it to 2006, going out as one of the more disappointing years in film this decade has seen, to go out with a bang. Thanks to late month arrival Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, December of ‘06 out-grossed ‘05, even with a lack of blockbuster talent.

Night at the Museum, which brought in $42 million over the 4 day Christmas weekend topped that by grossing $46.7 million during the past extended weekend leading up to New Year’s. That brought the film’s total gross to $125 million in just 11 days. Behold, the drawing power of Ben Stiller slapping around a little monkey. Night at the Museum finished 2006 as the 14th highest grossing film of the year, and the undisputed champion of the year-end Holiday sprint.

Not to be completely left behind, Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness found a lukewarm smile in its third week, bringing in $24.7 million. Dreamgirls, which expanded to 852 theaters (from 3) was the best performer per theater, bringing in $18 million on almost 3,000 less theaters than Night at the Museum. And as Oscar buzz continues to grow, look for the Dreamgirls to continue to do well. The top 5 was rounded out by family favorite Charlotte’s Web and Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, both making over $14 million. On a whole it was another great Holiday weekend at the Box Office, with plenty of great releases to come in January. Look for serious Oscar contenders such as Children of Men, the afore mentioned Dreamgirls and Pan’s Labyrinth to make jumps in the coming weeks.

[Source: Box Office Mojo]

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