Since opening on Wednesday, MGM’s Rocky Balboa has been a box office heavyweight, but can the comeback story of the year stand up against Ben Stiller slapping a monkey? Twentieth Century Fox’s Night at the Museum, one of the seven films shortlisted for this year’s VFX Oscar race, opens nationwide today to battle Stallone and CG-laden second-week holdovers Charlotte’s Web and Eragon, which should get a boost now that the kids are out of class.
Featuring visual effects by Rhythm & Hues, Weta Digital, Rainmaker, Maestro FX, New Deal Studios and The Orphanage, Night at the Museum has Ben Stiller taking on a seemingly boring job as a night watchman at a natural history museum. He soon learns, however, that the exhibits all come to life at night and it’s his job to keep everybody and everything in line. And did we mention he slaps a monkey?
Night at the Museum has the second highest theater count of the weekend, coming just shy of Paramount’s 3,728-theater occupation with Charlotte’s Web. This should yield big returns for the fantasy comedy, which has been cleverly crated to appeal to kids and adults alike. Many have likened it to Sony’s 1995 holiday release, Jumanji, which grossed more than $100 million domestically. That film had Robin Williams unleashing African critters on a suburban American neighborhood via an enchanted board game. Williams also shows up in Museum as a wax sculpture of Theodore Roosevelt that springs to life after hours. The film also stars Owen Wilson, Carla Gugino, Ricky Gervais, Steve Coogan, Paul Rudd, Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, as well as a host of CG-animated oddities including a T-Rex skeleton and an Easter Island stone head voiced by Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Brad Garret. The film is directed by Shawn Levy (The Pink Panther [2006]), from a screenplay by Thomas Lenon and Ben Garant, stars of Comedy Central’s Reno 911!
It should also be a big weekend for Rocky Balboa, which features CG animation to depict fights between boxers from different eras. In fact, it’s ESPN’s computer-generated simulation of a fight between Rocky and the current heavyweight champion that inspires the Italian Stallion to get back in the ring one more time.
Also opening in wide release this weekend are Warner Bros.’ inspirational football flick, We are Marshall, and Universal’s tale of the birth of the CIA, The Good Shephard.
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