“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” has a longer title and made more money than “Terminator Salvation” at Memorial weekend box office

“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” clobbered “Terminator Salvation”… by more than $10 million during the 4-day holiday weekend (Friday-Monday), “Night at the Museum 2″ pulled in a estimated $70.0 million while “Terminator 4″ made an estimated $53.8 million.

Last week’s number one “Angels & Demons” dropped to 4th with $27.7 million… while “Star Trek” shows its staying power, actually moving up one spot to 3rd at $29.4 million.  The worst movie of the year, “Dance Flick” opened in 5th with $13 million.

Friday-Sunday of Memorial weekend was the biggest weekend of 2009 so far, with the top 12 movies pulling in $169.44 million… a 29% increase over last weekend and nearly $5 million more than the previous best of $164.76 million during the 3rd weekend of January (that included “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (4-day estimated results):
1. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $70.00 million (1st week)

2. “Terminator Salvation” – $53.83 million (1st week)

3. “Star Trek” – $29.40 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Angels & Demons” - $27.70 million
(2nd week, was #1 last wek, lost 40% from last week)

5. “Dance Flick” - $13.10 million (1st week)

6. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $10.10 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 31% of audience from last week)

7. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $4.84 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 27% of audience from last week)

8. “Obsessed”  – $2.50 million
(5th week, was #5 last week, lost 46% of audience from last week)

9. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $1.90  million
(9th week, was #7 last week, lost 40% from last week)

10. “17 Again” – $1.28 million
(6th week, was #6 last week, lost 62% from last week)

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11. “The Soloist” – $1.08 million
(5th week, was #8 last week, lost 55% from last week) 

CLICK HERE FOR LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT 

“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” poster courtesy 20th Century Fox

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo