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By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY Holiday films finished the year with a flourish as National Treasure: Book of Secrets topped theaters for a second straight weekend.
The Nicolas Cage sequel took in $35.6 million, according to studio estimates. The movie has done $124 million in 10 days.
Alvin and the Chipmunks remains a surprisingly strong performer, taking second place with $30 million and $142.4 million overall.
Will Smith’s I Am Legend also continues to chug along, doing $27.5 million, good for third place and $194.6 million in three weeks.
Charlie Wilson’s War was fourth with $11.8 million, bringing its total to $34.6 million.
Aliens vs. Predator — Requiem was the only newcomer to crack the top 5, taking fifth place with $10.5 million, meeting most analysts’ expectations.
At least one small film finally found a foothold with mainstream audiences. Juno was sixth with $10.3 million. Since its release a month ago, the comedy has done $25.7 million.
Among the newcomers, the Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman comedy The Bucket List did $323,000 in 16 theaters for a healthy $20,188 per-theater average. And the Daniel Day-Lewis drama There Will Be Blood did $185,000 in two theaters for a $92,700 average.
Six movies did $10 million or better over the weekend, helping keep ticket sales about 4% ahead of last year’s pace.
Final figures are due Wednesday, after the holiday.
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