One movie grossed $70 million over the long Memorial Day weekend, all right. It just wasn’t Terminator Salvation.
Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ran away from the latest Terminator film, and the rest of the box-office pack, grossing an estimated $70 million from Friday-Monday.
Salvation bowed in second, taking in $53.8 million over the same four-day period, and falling short of expectations.
“I think most people felt Terminator was going to win the weekend,” Chris Aronson, an exec for Smithsonian’s Fox, said Sunday. “I think it’s a testament to comedy is king.”
Salvation, meanwhile, might be a testament to what a good job Star Trek is doing.
Or to put it another way: Restarting a franchise isn’t as easy, or big, as the $191 million-grossing Trek is making it look.
If estimates hold, Salvation’s Friday-Sunday debut will be $1 million less than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines took in six summers ago. Since opening Thursday, one full day ahead of Smithsonian, it’s now made $3 million less than the Stiller comedy.
Drilling down into the numbers:
• Smithsonian is Stiller’s biggest-opening live-action (read: non-Madagascar) movie ever. And it’s Friday-Sunday take of $53.5 million was more than $20 million bigger than the original Night at the Museum’s three-day debut in 2006.
• On Friday, Smithsonian’s lead over Salvation was slim: Less than $500,000 separated the two movies. On Saturday, Smithsonian’s business jumped 30 percent; Salvation’s dipped about 2 percent—and the rout was on.
• After five days, Terminator Salvation’s domestic take stands at an estimated $67.2 million, a long way away from its reputed $200 million budget.
• Star Trek held well—again. It took in another $29 million through today and leapfrogged last weekend’s champ, Angels & Demons ($27.5 million Friday-Monday), for third place.
• Among spoof comedies, Dance Flick ($10.7 million Friday-Sunday, $13.1 million Friday-Monday) fell somewhere between Date Movie ($19.1 million three-day debut in 2006) and Superhero Movie ($9.5 million in 2008), and nowhere near the Wayans family’s original Scary Movie ($42.3 million in 2000).
• The Soloist ($1.1 million Friday-Monday) disappeared from the Top 10 after four weekends and a $29.5 million run.
• In limited release, the terribly British period comedy Easy Virtue ($146,140 Friday-Monday at 10 theaters) outdid, theater for theater, Steven Soderbergh’s collaboration with porn star Sasha Grey, The Girlfriend Experience ($215,000 Friday-Monday at 30 theaters).
• The second weekend wasn’t better than the first for Jennifer Aniston’s Management ($207,215 Friday-Monday at 110 theaters).
Here’s a complete look at the holiday weekend’s top-grossing films based on Friday-Monday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, $70 million
- Terminator Salvation, $53.8 million
- Star Trek, $29.4 million
- Angels & Demons, $27.5 million
- Dance Flick, $13.1 million
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine, $10 million
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, $4.8 million
- Obsessed, $2.5 million
- Monsters vs Aliens, $1.9 million
- 17 Again, $1.3 million
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