National Treasure Sequel Digs Gold at Weekend Box Office

Bringing back the joy of adventure on the big screen, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" easily repeated the success of its predecessor as it made a fantastic debut of $44.8 million to become the No.1 movie on weekend box office ended Sunday, December 23, 2007.

The sequel also scored great in its overseas run by collecting $22.3 million from 17 international markets, mostly in Asia, and is expected to take in more than the $173 million the original did when it opens in European regions in February 2008.

Meanwhile, last week's top holder "I Am Legend" had to slip one notch to second place for gaining lower tally of $33.5 million followed by live-action/animation hybrid "Alvin and the Chipmunks" which still performed well in the competition with $28.2 million.

Next three spots were all secured by new releases of Mike Nichols-directed "Charlie Wilson's War", musical thriller "Sweeney Todd", and romantic drama "P.S., I Love You." While "War" and "Todd" competed tight at $9.65 million and $9.3 million, respectively, "Love", on the other hand, only had a fair No.6 opening at $6.5 million despite its star-studded cast .

Landing on the seventh rank was princess pic "Enchanted" for its decent effort to add $4.2 million into its pocket, slightly above the $4.17 million another newcomer "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" has collected. New Line Cinema's fantasy epic "The Golden Compass" and teen pregnancy drama "Juno" trailed behind to round out the top ten of the chart with respective income of $3.98 million and $3.4 million.