In a crowded weekend at the multiplex, Night at the Museum proved an early Christmas present for 20th Century Fox.

"A great, great, great start," said a downright giddy Bruce Snyder, the studio's distribution chief. "I had been hoping to see $20 million, so to see [$42.2 million] on this particular weekend, which is a very difficult weekend…is marvelous."

The PG-rated comedy adventure, starring Ben Stiller as a night watchman confronted with suddenly alive exhibits, registered $30.4 million from Friday to Sunday and a total of $42.2 million over the four-day holiday to land in first place, according to Media by Numbers, well ahead of the other newcomers trying to jingle the cash-register bells at the box office.

Sly Stallone's final boxing bout, Rocky Balboa, stepped into the ring in third place, with a three-day gross of $12.2 million and four-day tally of $17 million, behind last week's number one, Will Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness, which dropped down to the second slot with $15 million from Friday to Sunday and $23.1 million from Friday to Monday.

The Good Shepherd, the Robert De Niro-helmed drama about the establishment of the CIA, came out of the shadows in fourth place with $10 million Friday-Sunday and $13.9 million Friday-Monday.

Meanwhile, Dreamgirls crashed the party in seventh place as it expanded from three theaters to 852 on Christmas Day and earned a whopping $8.5 million. The Oscar-buzzing adaptation of the Broadway hit, starring Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, tallied $8.7 million for the full four-day holiday and has earned $9.6 million overall.

The last two newbies got the box-office equivalent of coal. We Are Marshall, the inspirational football tale starring Matthews McConaughey and Fox, could only touch down in eighth with just $8.6 million for the four-day period, while the horror flick Black Christmas, starring Michelle Trachtenberg, opened on Christmas Day and scared up a measly $3.3 million in 15th.

Night at the Museum's audience was evenly split between families and couples, men and women, boys and girls, old and young—or as Snyder summed it up, "everybody." Exhibited at 3,685 locations, including many IMAX screens to showcase the comically scary special effects, the film averaged $11,455. With a stellar ensemble behind him (including Robin Williams as a resurrected Teddy Roosevelt, Ricky Gervais as the museum boss, Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan as contentious miniatures and Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney as mischievous fellow security guards), Stiller saw Night at the Museum go down as a career second-best opening, behind Meet the Fockers (which debuted with $46.1 million in the pre-Christmas weekend of 2004) and slightly ahead of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (which opened with $30 million in the summer of 2004).

Rocky Balboa, a PG-rated MGM release that received some good reviews, costars Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) as Rocky Jr. and franchise vet Burt Young, who has appeared alongside Stallone in all six Rocky films. The latest match knocked up an average of $5,636 at 3,017 sites and has grossed $26.7 million since opening Wednesday.

The Good Shepherd, an R-rated Universal release starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie with support from De Niro, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, Timothy Hutton and Michael Gambon, broke cover at 2,215 locations and averaged $6,295.

We Are Marshall, a PG Warner Bros. release inspired by the true story of the eponymous college's attempt to field a football team after most of its players and coaches are wiped out in a plane crash, kicked off in 2,606 locations and only averaged $3,290.

Last week's top openers had mixed success in their second go-round. The Pursuit of Happyness dropped a decent 43 percent, bringing its two-week gross to $61.4 million, but Eragon flamed out, down 70 percent, from second to sixth, tallying $9.3 million over the extended weekend for a two-week haul of $39.8 million. But Charlotte's Web only fell off 34 percent, down to fifth place from its disappointing third-place opening last week with $9.5 million from Friday to Monday to bring its overall total to $28.3 million.

In limited release, the top per-screen earner was Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's heavily praised depiction of the World War II battle from the Japanese viewpoint and starring Ken Watanabe. Having opened midweek to qualify for Oscar consideration, the R-rated Warner Bros. release averaged $24,521 at five locations to earn $89,154 from Friday through Sunday and $122,605 from Friday through Monday. Its total stands at $162,350.

The Painted Veil, a PG-13 Warner Independent release based on a Somerset Maugham story about an ill-matched couple (Edward Norton and Naomi Watts) coping with a cholera epidemic in China, averaged $17,953 to earn $51,085 Friday-Sunday and $71,813 Friday-Monday.

Venus, the R-rated Miramax release starring potential Oscar contender Peter O'Toole as an aged actor with a big crush on a young girl, averaged $18,000 at three locations for a three-day total of $36,237 and four-day total of $54,000. Since opening Wednesday, the film has grossed, $59,800.

Speaking of China, the country's official entry for Oscar consideration, Curse of the Gold Flower, an R-rated Sony Pictures Classic release about historical power play in royal circles and starring Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li, averaged $7,989 at 60 locations for a three-day total of $479,369 and four-day take of $712,760.

Overall, it was an up weekend, with ticket sales registering 8 percent more than this time last year, when King Kong was atop the box office for a second weekend.

Here's a recap of the top-grossing films from Friday to Monday (and Friday to Sunday) based on studio figures compiled by Media by Numbers:

1. Night at the Museum, $42.2 million ($30.4 million)
2. The Pursuit of Happyness, $23.1 million ($15 million)
3. Rocky Balboa, $7 million ($12.2 million)
4. The Good Shepherd, $13.9 million ($10 million)
5. Charlotte's Web, $9.5 million ($7.6 million)
6. Eragon, $9.3 million ($7 million)
7. Dreamgirls, $8.7 million ($228,000)
8. We Are Marshall, $8.6 million ($6.1 million)
9. The Holiday, $7.1 million ($4.9 million)
10. Happy Feet, $6.6 million ($5.2 million)