"Night" Wins The Day

Due to the Christmas day opening of Black Christmas and Dreamgirls--final numbers for the long weekend were not posted by some outlets as I write this...That said, I find it hard to imagine that things, as they stand, are going to change all that much.

The family flick Night At The Museum came out the clear winner.

Ben Stiller And Friend Ran Away With Lots Of Cash And Looks

To Finish 1st At The Box Office For The Holiday Weekend

Ian Mohr of Variety has details:

As studios woke up Monday to unwrap their Christmas B.O. gifts, Fox's "Night at the Museum" still seemed to have a commanding hold on the charts.

Pic had the potential to raise its three-day estimated take of $30.8 million to as much as $40 million, or more, with its Christmas biz added on top, according to B.O. pros.

With "Night" ahead of the pack, the weekend's top five films didn't seem as if they'd be shifting places when Monday's B.O. estimates were taken into account: Sony's "The Pursuit of Happyness" remained at No. 2, with MGM's "Rocky Balboa" and Universal's "The Good Shepherd" following behind.

Still set to roll out Monday were Paramount/DreamWorks' musical "Dreamgirls," and MGM's horror pic "Black Christmas."

Some studios chose not to release any official B.O. estimates for the frame's four day frame -- which includes Christmas Day -- saying B.O. numbers can be too tough to call on a this traditionally quirky day when moviegoers' behavior can be hard to predict.

Traditionally on Christmas, daytime numbers tend to be down as families gather. But once Christmas dinner is done, B.O. can be flush as auds head out to the multiplexes.

After bringing in $15 million over the first three days of the Christmas frame, it looked as if "Pursuit," Sony's Will Smith starrer, would be able to add another $5 or so million to its tally. Pic was playing in 2,836 engagements.

MGM, meantime, said that it saw "Rocky" as moving from $12.5 million over the three days to $16.3 million over four. "Rocky's" cume has been a scrappy $$26 million since its release Wednesday. Pic played in 3,017 over the weekend.

Universal's estimated that its "Shepherd," the Robert DeNiro-helmed political pic, meantime, would raise its cume from a three day take of $10 million to $13.9 million off 2,215.

Warner Bros.' gridiron drama "We Are Marshall," which took in just $6.6 million off 2,548 over three days looked as if it would remain in the seventh spot on the charts: Pic's four-day estimate stood at $8.36 million off 3,208.

Studio's "Letters from Iwo Jima" had an estimated six-day cume, as of Monday, of $163,900 from five locations after its Wednesday bow last week.

In the specialty sector, Sony Classics' opener "Curse of the Golden Flower" reported a four-day estimate of $724,369 off 60 for a per screen average of $12,073 and a cume since Thursday of $738,266.

Paramount Vantage raised the cume on its "Babel" to just under $19 million by taking in $422,778 off 207 over the four-day frame.

Miramax's "The Queen" took in $577,000 over the four day frame to raise its cume to $26.6 million.

Unit's opener "Venus" had a four-day take of $54,000 off three screens for a per engagement average of just over $18,000

Update 3:00 PM:

'Dreamgirls' A Holiday Treat

Paramount and DreamWorks' big screen musical adaptation "Dreamgirls" bowed to $8.7 million on Christmas, the studios estimated Tuesday morning.

Tuner, top lining Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy, expanded yesterday from three screens to 852. Per screen average was over $10,000.