Night At The Museum 2 descends on global box office

The family adventure sequel from 20th Century Fox International — which reunites original star Ben Stiller withdirector Shawn Levy and has a supporting cast including Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais and Robin Williams – arrives in all the major markets except Mexico, Japan and Korea, occupying a total of about 10,750 screens.

It opened with 750 prints in France on Wednesday (May 20), reached Australia (400 prints), Germany (816 prints and Russia (882 prints) on Thursday, and hits Brazil (450 prints), Italy (550 prints), Spain (503 prints) and the UK (936 prints) on Friday. 

The effects-heavy sequel launches in North America — where its title is Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian — on Friday, at the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Fox will be looking to make a summer smash out of the follow-up to a surprise Christmas hit. The first Night at the Museum opened in the US on December 22, 2006 and went on to gross 50.9m domestically. Though most of its international openings came just after Christmas or in January, the original still amassed an international gross of $323.6m.

• The sequel’s strongest competition will come from Angels & Demons, which opened on more than 10,000 international screens last weekend and grossed Story text02.1m. This Friday, Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) opens the film, a follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, in Mexico, with 801 prints. Angels & Demons’ estimated international gross as of Wednesday was Story text32.4m.
• This weekend’s other big North American release, action sequel Terminator Salvation, goes day-and-date in only one international market, opening in Korea through Lotte Cinema. SPRI is handling the film in most other international territories.

A handful of other studio films get isolated international openings this weekend.

• Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International opened Confessions of a Shopaholic, with an international total so far of $57.7m,  in France on Wednesday and releases Hannah Montana The Movie (with 6.6m internationally so far) in Mexico on Friday.
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) launched Focus Features’ Coraline (Story text8.6m internationally so far) on 216 Korean screens on Thursday. Other UPI openers are: The Last House On The Left (Story text.4m internationally so far) on 175 screens in Mexico on Friday; Role Models (5m internationally so far) on 94 screens in Italy on Friday; State of Play (Story text8.6m internationally so far) on 278 screens in Japan on Saturday.
• Paramount Pictures International opens British pick-up Lesbian Vampire Killers in Australia on Friday.