Pixar's Up Soars Over the Box Office

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend.

It was a good weekend for Disney and Pixar Animation as their tenth CG animated movie Up opened with an estimated $68.2 million in 3,766 theaters, making it the third highest opening for the animation house after The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. It was also the first movie from Pixar screened in 3D in roughly 1,500 theaters, with 3D screens bringing in 2.2 times as much business as the 2D options, helping the critically-lauded movie average $18 thousand per venue.

The Ben Stiller comedy sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (20th Century Fox) dropped 53% in its second weekend, adding $25.5 million to its cumulative take of $105 million. It became the tenth movie this year to cross the $100 million mark at the box office, along with Sony's Angels & Demons, while pulling ahead of the latter internationally with $37.2 million grossed overseas this weekend.

Sam Raimi's return to horror Drag Me to Hell (Universal) opened in third place with an estimated $16.7 million, averaging $6.6 thousand per site. Raimi's movie also made $4.4 million in the U.K., France and Israel.

McG's Terminator Salvation (Warner Bros.) took a dramatic plunge in its second weekend, taking a 62% hit to end up in fourth place with $16.1 million and a total of $90.6 million, less than half of its reported $200 million production budget.

Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (Paramount) became the first movie of 2009 to cross the $200 million mark, as it added $12.8 million in fifth place. With $209 million, it is also currently the highest grossing movie of the year. As of this weekend, the movie has also grossed $101.5 million internationally.

In sixth place, the Ron Howard adaptation of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons (Sony), starring Tom Hanks, added another $11.2 million to its own box office gross of $105 million. It has grossed 2.5 times that amount overseas.

The Wayans' spoof comedy Dance Flick (Paramount) dropped to seventh place with $4.9 million and a total of $19.2 million.

20th Century Fox's superhero prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine dropped 52% to eighth place with a weekend take of $3.9 million and $170.8 million total.

According to estimates, Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom (Summit), just missed breaking into the top 10 as it expanded into 148 theaters but ended up just $13 thousand shy of besting the Screen Gems thriller Obsessed.

The Top 10 grossed roughly $161.8 million, down slightly from last year when New Line's Sex and the City topped the weekend with $57 million and the Rogue Pictures thriller The Strangers opened in third place with $21 million.