Given a surprisingly wide berth on its opening weekend, the poorly reviewed dance movie Stomp The Yard stepped (and krumped and clowned) all over the competition with an absurd $22 million gross, finally ending Night At The Museum's reign of terror atop the North American box office. Still, the barely watchable Ben Stiller comedy collected another $17 million to inch ever closer to the $200 million mark, which it should surpass by next weekend. The week's other big openings didn't fare nearly so well, including the true-crime story Alpha Dog, which netted only $6.1 million despite the Justin Timberlake factor, and Primeval, a not-screened-for-critics killer crocodile movie that took in $6 million. In limited release, Pan's Labyrinth continues to stomp the arthouse yard with a $10,680 per-screen-average and a total gross that's well north of $4 million, a strong total considering it hasn't expanded beyond 200 screens yet. Ditto Letters From Iwo Jima, which is simmering nicely on just 34 screens until Oscar nominations are announced, after which it will presumably seek a wider audience.
Detailed numbers can be found at Box Office Mojo.