Moviegoers Choose Museum Battle Over Robot Apocalypse
Ben Stiller and Amy Adams in the family fun Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian proved to be too much for the gritty Terminator Salvation. Both movies made a lot of money but in the end more moviegoers chose the family film. Night at the Museum 2 made $70.1 million over the Memorial Day weekend while Terminator Salvation tooks in nearly $52 million. Deadline Hollywood Dailysays the box office was a dissapointment for T4.
Even though my box office gurus were confident Museum 2 would wind up #1, T4 "is pretty disappointing as most pundits thought it was going to win the weekend, as did most if not all of the tracking services," a rival studio exec notes. Under and over age 25 males turned out, but the buzz turned rancid among fanboys who overwhelmingly didn't like the pic. (Top critics didn't either: there were only 33% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes). Warner Bros expected more, especially because T4 benefitted from worldwide awareness from that Christian Bale audio.
Star Trek had a strong third week and made another $22.8 million. Angels & Demons had a strong second week with $21.7. Angels & Demons also continues to make lots of money overseas. The Wayans brothers' Dance Flick comedy made over $10 million.
