Stiller Sequel Halts Terminator's Holiday Salvation

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

Going into the long Memorial Day weekend, an interesting battle was shaping up between McG's relaunch Terminator Salvation (Warner Bros.) starring Christian Bale, and Ben Stiller's family comedy sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (20th Century Fox). The latter opened in roughly 500 more theaters including IMAX screens, but Terminator Salvation tried getting a head start by opening early on Thursday. Even with the $13.3 million made on Thursday, McG's sci-fi action movie wasn't able to best Night at the Museum, which won the weekend with an estimated $70 million in its first four days. It averaged $17k in over 4,000 venues to become Stilller's second biggest opening after last year's Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, as well as his biggest opening live action movie. It was also the biggest opening for a PG-rated film over the Memorial Day weekend, a record previously held by the first Madagascar. At the same time, Museum brought in $50 million internationally in 53 markets.

Terminator Salvation ended up bringing in an estimated $53.8 million over the four-day holiday, its $67 million total being less than the $72 million made by the previous installment Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in its first five days. The prequel relaunch won't be opening internationally for a few weeks, although that distribution is being handled by Sony.

J.J. Abrams' own relaunch of Star Trek (Paramount) continues to hold up well as it passed last week's #1 movie, Angels & Demons (Sony), knocking the Tom Hanks starrer down to fourth place. Star Trek grossed roughly $29.4 million in its third extended weekend amassing a total gross of $191 million, which puts it just $2.5 million behind passing DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens to become the highest grossing movie of the year so far. Angels & Demons added another $27.7 million to bring its own domestic total to $87.8 million, while at the same time, grossing $60.4 million internationally over the weekend to beat Night at the Museum in foreign markets.

Dance Flick (Paramount), the Wayans' return to spoof comedy, opened in fifth place with a weak $13.1 million in 2,450 theaters, averaging $5300 per site.

Dropping to sixth place, the 20th Century Fox superhero prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine added another $10 million to its four-week box office total of $165 million. It's looking doubtful it will make it to the $200 million mark, at least domestically.

In seventh place was the romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (New Line/WB), starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner, which brought in $4.8 million over the holiday weekend to bring its total to $47 million after four weeks.

The Top 10 grossed roughly $214 million, up slightly from Memorial Day weekend last year, when Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull returned Harrison Ford to the adventure franchise to the tune of $152 million over five days.

In limited release, Steven Soderbergh's latest The Girlfriend Experience (Magnolia), starring Sasha Grey, opened in 30 theaters, bringing in $200 thousand over the four-day weekend, averaging $6.6 thousand per site. The Noel Coward adaptation Easy Virtue (Sony Classics), starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Ben Barnes and Kristin Scott Thomas, made $146 thousand in ten theaters.