May 24 (Bloomberg) -- “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” opened as the top film over the Memorial Day holiday, beating out a new “Terminator” film in one of the biggest movie-going weekends of the year.

“Night at the Museum” took in $53.5 million for News Corp.’s Fox studio, while “Terminator Salvation,” from Time Warner Inc., was second with $43 million, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement.

“This was a broadly appealing family comedy, the first one of the summer,” said Brandon Gray, president of film researcher Box Office Mojo LLC, in a telephone interview. “Terminator is in more of a narrow niche in terms of the audience.”

The Memorial Day holiday typically ranks as the biggest or second-biggest weekend for theaters. The record for a Memorial Day was set in 2007 when “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” was in release. A large turnout will boost Hollywood’s chances of breaking the domestic box-office record set two years ago. As of today, sales were ahead 15 percent of last year’s levels and attendance had increased 12 percent.

“Night at the Museum” gave Twentieth Century Fox another big opener, following “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which was released May 1 and ranked as the top weekend film this year with $85 million over three days, according to Hollywood.com Box- Office, which tracks receipts.

Museum Sequel

“Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” is a sequel to the 2006 film. Ben Stiller returns as a man who watches the exhibits come to life after the museum closes. Amy Adams, Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan co-star. The first film, released in 2006, generated $251 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according to researcher Box Office Mojo LLC. The latest movie had a production budget of about $150 million, according to the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB.com.

The “Terminator” series began with 1984’s “The Terminator,” directed by James Cameron. In the film, Arnold Schwarzenegger played a robot sent from the future to kill a woman, Sarah Connor, whose son is destined to become leader of the human forces fighting robot domination. In the second and third films, Schwarzenegger portrayed “good” cyborgs sent by humans from the future to protect Connor and her son John.

In “Terminator Salvation,” Christian Bale plays the adult John Connor. Sam Worthington and Bryce Dallas Howard co-star. The film cost an estimated $200 million to make, according to IMDB.com.

Star Trek

The film opened on May 21, a day earlier than “Night at the Museum.” The first three “Terminator” pictures took in a combined $393.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo. “Terminator Salvation” has earned $56.4 million since its Thursday debut.

Paramount’s “Star Trek” slid to third place this weekend with $22 million, and has earned $183.5 million in three weeks of release. The movie, which follows the early adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, had the best debut of the 11-movie franchise with a four-day total of $79.2 million after debuting on May 8.

Last weekend’s top film, “Angels & Demons,” fell to fourth with $21.4 million for the sequel to the 2006 thriller “The Da Vinci Code.” The movie from Sony Corp. stars Tom Hanks as the symbologist Robert Langdon, and both films are based on novels by Dan Brown. The novel “Angels & Demons” was released in 2000, three years before “The Da Vinci Code” book.

Dance Flick

This time, Langdon is called upon by Roman Catholic officials to help locate an anti-matter bomb planted in the Vatican by a group known as the Illuminati. Tension is heightened because Cardinals, gathered in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope, refuse to leave. Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgard co-star. Ron Howard directed.

The weekend’s other new release, “Dance Flick,” was fifth with sales of $11 million for Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and MTV Films. The spoof, directed by Damon Wayans, follows a street dancer from a poor neighborhood who tries to make it in a big-time dance competition. The movie had a production budget of about $25 million, according to IMDB.com.

The weekend’s top 12 films grossed about $170.3 million, up 1.7 percent from the same period a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. All films grossed an estimated $171 million, down less than 1 percent.

Total box office revenue this year is $3.85 billion, up 15 percent from the same period last year, according to the report.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Hollywood.com Box-Office. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales for May 22 and yesterday, and estimates for today.

                           Rev.           Avg./  Pct. Total
Movie                     (mln) Theaters Theater Chg. (mln) Wks
==============================================================
1 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM      53.5  4,096   13,062  --    53.5  1
2 TERMINATOR SALVATION     43.0  3,530   12,184  --    56.4  1
3 STAR TREK                22.0  4,053    5,428  -49  183.5  3
4 ANGELS & DEMONS          21.4  3,527    6,067  -54   81.5  2
5 DANCE FLICK              11.0  2,450    4,490  --    11.0  1
6 X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE  7.8  3,183    2,451  -47  163.1  4
7 GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS     3.7  2,255    1,650  -44   45.9  4
8 OBSESSED                  2.0  1,603    1,248  -56   65.9  5
9 MONSTERS VS. ALIENS       1.4  1,434      941  -58  193.1  9
10 17 AGAIN                 1.0  1,107      908  -70   60.3  6
11 THE SOLOIST              0.8    654    1,284  -65   29.2  5
12 NEXT DAY AIR             0.6    542    1,107  -73    8.9  3


Top 12 Films Grosses

   This Week     Year Ago      Pct.
     (mln)         (mln)       Chg.
===================================
    $170.3        $167.5       1.7


Year-to-date Revenue

     2009          2008
      YTD           YTD        Pct.
     (mln)         (mln)       Chg.
===================================
    $3,850        $3,362      14.5

Year-to-date Attendance:     11.7%

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite@bloomberg.net; Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 24, 2009 14:49 EDT