Ben's Bonanza

Speaking of critically reviled movies (see entry below), the lowbrow Ben Stiller comedy "Night at the Museum'' has way outdistanced better-recieved Christmas releases. The notable mainstream offering trailing in its wake is the much-hyped "Dreamgirls,'' which has struggled to a $100 million domestic gross despite critical hosannas and eight Oscar nominations.

Variety reports how Fox used strategic casting of foreign actors and carefully timed overseas openings to turn a project that had been in development for a decade into a money machine that's taken in a $500 million worldwide gross so far.

Posted by Lou Lumenick on February 19, 2007 02:04 PM