As John Edwards might say, there are two Americas: The America that has reasonably decent taste in movies and the much larger America that turned out in droves to make the abysmal family comedy Night At The Museum the #1 movie for the third straight week. With a $24 million weekend gross, the Ben Stiller crapfest has soared to $164 million total and looks to easily surpass $200 million before ending its theatrical run. Also holding steady was Will Smith Oscar bid The Pursuit Of Happyness, which added another $13 million to its surprisingly robust $125 million total. No doubt bolstered by its status as the A.V. Club's consensus choice for year's best movie, Children Of Men did remarkably well in its nationwide debut, hauling in $12 million on one-third the screens of the top two for third place and a robust $8500 per screen average. The Hilary Swank teacher-in-da-hood drama Freedom Writers bested all the premieres this week with a mild $10 million fourth place finish while others didn't fare so well, including the sixth place Shrek knockoff Happily N'Ever After ($6.8 million) and Code Name: The Cleaner, which was off the charts at a pitiful $4.6 million.
In semi-limited release, Fox Faith's unheralded debut release, the Christian horror movie Thr3e, opened to $740,000 on 458 screens, which adds up to a dire $1615 per screen average.
For more detailed numbers and analysis, visit Box Office Mojo.