Night At The Museum Is Still The Box Office Topper

Have you recovered from the excess of the festive season? Are you still faced with flaming turkey wings and turkey curry for dinner? Are you pondering whether it’ll be a happy new year? Well, for some people, 2007 is already happy.

Take Ben Stiller. His new film, Night At The Museum shot straight to the top of the charts over Christmas and has continued to reign as 2006 closed and the New Year dawned this weekend. The film made $46.7 million this weekend and has already nabbed $125.7 million in total.

That puts it ahead of Will Smith’s The Pursuit Of Happyness, which is also pulling them in at US fleapits. It’s made $103.7 million after three weeks on release and looks to continue the Fresh Prince’s return to box office success. In third place after three weeks is Dreamgirls, which, while it has only taken $41.6 million so far has an excuse – it’s being opened much more slowly, trying to take advantage of the Oscar whispers. Compare its 852 screen total to Museum’s 3,768… And it snapped records for a musical opening and is still doing well. Expect it to do even better if it snags a golden baldie or two.

In fourth, we find Charlotte’s Web, which took advantage of the holidays to rebound back from sixth place. The story of a helpful spider and a naïve pig has earned $55.9 million to date. Fifth place is The Good Shepherd, Robert De Niro’s tale of the difficult birth of the CIA. The Matt Damon drama is currently on $38.3 million after two weeks. And dropping down the charts like it’s been punched is Rocky Balboa, with $51.1 million so far.

Seventh place is the current resting spot for Eragon, which isn’t exactly living up to its title of The Next Lord Of The Rings. With dodgy reviews and limited interested, it’s only made $58.7 million in three weeks.

That’s still better – though not so impressive once you consider their different budgets – than We Are Marshall, the true-life tale of an American Football tragedy. The drama has nabbed $27.2 million so far.

Bringing up the rear at ninth and tenth are Happy Feet (which is finally ready to start leaving the charts after seven weeks and $178 million) and The Holiday, which has scored a decent take of $51.8 million after four weeks.