'Night at the Museum' again tops box office

LOS ANGELES -- Ben Stiller's playful "Night at the Museum" was the top box office draw for the second consecutive weekend with $37.8 million, a 24 percent jump over its debut the previous week, according to studio estimates released Sunday.

Uplifting movies dominated the Top 10 for the holiday weekend, a busy period at turnstiles.

Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness" took second place with $19.3 million, up 30 percent, while the musical "Dreamgirls" finished third with $15.5 million.

"The Pursuit of Happyness" was expected to cross the $100 million threshold on New Year's Day.

No. 4 "Charlotte's Web" was up 59 percent with $12 million in its third week. "Rocky Balboa" was in fifth place with $11.4 million.

No new movies went into wide release.

"Dreamgirls" saw a major surge in business, averaging a whopping $18,192 per screen as Paramount rolled it out slowly with word-of-mouth creating a buzz. It was showing on just 852 screens, compared to 3,768 for "Night at the Museum."

"Dreamgirls," the first musical sensation since "Chicago" in 2002, will expand to about 1,800 screens Jan. 12.

"We knew it was a movie that was a real crowd-pleaser," said Rob Moore, Paramount's president of marketing and distribution. "The amazing word of mouth is bringing it along. It's been a while since a musical really worked."