‘National Treasure’ keeps getting richer
Los Angeles ? Fortune-seeker Nicolas Cage, lonely guy Will Smith and a pack of talking chipmunks ended Hollywood’s year on a happy note.
Cage’s “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” was the No. 1 movie for a second weekend with $35.6 million, followed by “Alvin and the Chipmunks” with $30 million and Smith’s “I Am Legend” with $27.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Those hits along with a solid crop of other holdovers and new movies that opened Christmas Day capped a year-end hot streak for Hollywood, whose business soared the last few weeks after a sluggish fall.
The top 12 movies took in $169.2 million, up 18 percent from the final weekend of 2006, when “Night at the Museum” led the box office with $36.8 million.
Hollywood will finish the year with record revenues of about $9.7 billion, up from the previous best of $9.45 billion in 2004, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. Since prices are higher, the revenue represents actual admissions that were up only a fraction over 2006’s and fell well short of modern Hollywood’s record of 1.6 billion tickets sold in 2002.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters:
1. “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” $35.6 million.
2. “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” $30 million.
3. “I Am Legend,” $27.5 million.
4. “Charlie Wilson’s War,” $11.8 million.
5. “Juno,” $10.3 million.
6. “Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem,” $10.05 million.
7. “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep,” $9.2 million.
8. “P.S. I Love You,” $9.1 million.
9. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” $8 million.
10. “Enchanted,” $6.5 million.