Night at the Museum 2 somehow stayed in second place with an obscene $25.5 million.


'Up' opens to $68.2 million to lead weekend box office

May 31, 2009, 02:36 PM

Is there any topic Pixar can't turn into a hit? The studio has now transformed its geriatric fantasy adventure Up into its third highest grossing opening ever, behind The Incredibles ($70 million) and Finding Nemo ($70.2 million). It's surely been aided by the 1500 3-D screens that cost a premium ticket price. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian grabbed the number two slot, holding incredibly well considering the competition was stiff for the family audience this weekend. The Ben Stiller-starrer dropped a mild 53% to $25.5 million for the frame. But despite the solid turnout from the family audiences this weekend, the box office couldn't match last year at this time when Sex and the City opened to $56.8 million and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had a giant $44.5 million second weekend. (The top 12 movies were down just under 1% from last year.)

Despite the dour year-over-year comparisons, individual films are still holding their own. In third place, the well-reviewed Sam Raimi-directed horror film Drag Me to Hell opened to $16.6 million, just beating Terminator Salvation's three-day take of $16.1 million. The Christian Bale-starrer dropped 62% from its opening frame. The film's 11-day cume stands at $90 million, far beneath what Terminator 3 had grossed in its first 11 days in theaters back in 2003. Fifth place belonged to the stalwart Star Trek which continues to earn despite already being in theaters for a month. The J.J. Abrams-directed movie has now crossed the $200 million mark -- dropping only 44% this frame, it proves it's still got more earning power left.