Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum is a 2006 fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It is based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc. The film had an ensemble cast of Ben Stiller in the lead role, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, and Robin Williams. It tells the story of a divorced father who applies for a job as a night watchman at New York City's American Museum of Natural History and subsequently discovers that the exhibits come to life at night, animated by a magical Egyptian artifact. 20th Century Fox released the film on December 22, 2006, and it grossed $574.5 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2006 and received mixed to positive reviews from critics.
Two live-action sequels were released, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in 2009, and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb in 2014. An animated sequel, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again, was released on December 9, 2022, for the streaming service Disney+.
In New York City, Larry Daley is a divorced aspiring inventor bouncing between jobs and apartments. His ex-wife Erica is sympathetic to his situation, but considers him a bad example to their ten-year-old son Nick, an elementary schooler who considers quitting ice hockey and plans to become a bond trader like his mother's fiancé Don when he grows up. This makes Larry worry that Nick admires Don instead of him, especially after Nick decides to invite Don to Career Day at his school. Larry is hired as the night security guard at the American Museum of Natural History, replacing retiring guard Cecil Fredericks and his colleagues Gus and Reginald. Cecil gives Larry a special instructions manual, warning him not to "let anything in or out".
On his first night, Larry discovers that the museum's exhibits come to life after sunset, including: "Rexy", a Tyrannosaurus skeleton that behaves like a playful dog; Dexter, a mischievous stuffed capuchin monkey who destroys Larry's manual, along with other taxidermied animals, and later takes his keys; rival miniature civilizations depicting the American Frontier, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Maya; a chewing gum-loving Easter Island Moai who calls Larry "Dum-Dum"; American Civil War soldier mannequins; and wax models of Attila the Hun and some of his men, pyromaniacal Neanderthals, and Sacagawea, who is encased in glass and cannot hear anything. A horse-mounted Theodore Roosevelt rescues Larry from feuding miniature leaders Jedediah and Octavius, and explains that ever since an ancient Egyptian artifact—the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah—arrived in 1952, the exhibits come to life each night, but will turn to dust if left outside the museum at sunrise. As Theodore helps restore order, Larry learns that Theodore is in love with Sacagawea but is too shy to speak to her.
Cecil, Reginald, and Gus check on Larry, who has decided to quit, but Nick and Don stop by to congratulate him on his new job. Larry decides to stay for his son's sake, and Cecil advises reading up on history. Larry is better able to control the exhibits, but is forced to extinguish a fire that the Neanderthals' had caused in their own display, while Dexter steals Larry's keys again and unlocks a window. This allows a Neanderthal to jump out the window and escape onto the street, upon seeing a group of homeless people using a fire pit. Larry again decides to quit in frustration, and is unable to save the escaped Neanderthal from disintegrating from the rising sun, while his remains are swept up by a street sweeper. Nick witnesses museum director Dr. McPhee firing his father over the damaged Neanderthal exhibit, though Larry convinces McPhee to reconsider. McPhee gives him one last chance to prove himself and Larry clears up the misunderstanding with Nick. Rebecca Hutman, a museum guide and historian writing her dissertation on Sacagawea, believes Larry is mocking her when he tells her the museum's nighttime secret.
Larry brings Nick to the museum, intending to show him the T-rex coming to life, but nothing comes to life. They discover Cecil, Gus and Reginald stealing the tablet and have deactivated it to stop the exhibits from interfering. Like the exhibits, the elderly guards receive enhanced vitality from the tablet, and have plotted to steal it along with other valuable artifacts to fund their retirement and frame Larry for their thievery. Nick reactivates the tablet, bringing the museum back to life and a chase ensues throughout the museum, but the chase is halted when Cecil snatches the tablet away and locks Nick and Larry in the Egyptian room. Larry releases Ahkmenrah's mummy from his sarcophagus, and the pharaoh, who removes his cloth wraps to reveal himself as a fully living human, helps Larry and Nick escape. They find the other exhibits fighting amongst themselves, and Larry convinces them to unite to catch the guards and recover the tablet.
Gus and Reginald are captured, while Cecil escapes in a Pony Express stagecoach. Theodore pushes Sacagawea out of Cecil's path and is sliced in half but survives, being "made of wax." Larry pursues Cecil into Central Park, stopping him and regaining the tablet. Theodore bonds with Sacagawea as she repairs him with hot wax. Rebecca sees the exhibits returning to the museum. She realizes that Larry was telling the truth, and he later introduces her to Sacagawea. Theodore remarks that he is proud of Larry's work along with Nick. Larry laments that he was not able to save everyone, believing that Jedediah and Octavius were both killed after the latter crashed his radio-controlled car, and is surprised when they return alive and well.
The next day, McPhee attempts to fire Larry after news reports about the night's strange events—such as The Neanderthals leaving cave paintings in the museum's subway station, and Rexy's dinosaur tracks in Central Park—but the publicity boosts museum attendance. Larry is rehired, goes to Nick's schools next career day and celebrates that night with a party, with Nick, Rebecca and the exhibits in attendance. Cecil, Gus and Reginald are forced to work as museum janitors as punishment for their crimes, and they clean up after the party.
The building featured in the film, which was constructed on a sound stage in Burnaby, British Columbia, is based on the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, external shots of which were used in the movie.
Trainers spent several weeks training Crystal, who plays the troublemaking monkey Dexter, to slap and bite Stiller in the film.
Director Shawn Levy credited Ben Stiller for the ensemble cast: "When actors hear that Ben Stiller is in a movie they want to work with him. It['s] a high-water mark and it absolutely draws actors in and I'm convinced that's a big part of why we got this cast."
Alan Silvestri replaced John Ottman as score composer. Silvestri's score was used for the teaser trailer of Horton Hears a Who!
Varèse Sarabande released a soundtrack album of the score on December 19, 2006.
Night at the Museum had its premiere in New York City on December 17, 2006. It was later released on December 22, 2006, in the United States, December 26, 2006, in UK, January 12, 2007, in Brazil, on February 14, 2007, in China and on March 17, 2007, in Japan.
At the end of its box office run, Night at the Museum earned a gross of $250.9 million in the US and Canada and $323.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $574.5 million. It was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2006 and also the highest-grossing film worldwide of the trilogy. It was also the highest-grossing film directed by Shawn Levy, until it was surpassed by Deadpool & Wolverine also directed by Levy.
It was the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend, grossing $30.8 million and playing in 3,685 theaters, with a $8,258 per-theater average. For the four-day Christmas holiday weekend, it took in $42.2 million. The movie was also released in IMAX large screen format, often on-site at museums of science or natural history such as the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.
In its second weekend, Night at the Museum expanded into 83 more theaters for a total of 3,768, and took in approximately $36.7 million, out-grossing its opening weekend. It maintained the top position in its third week, with an additional $23.7 million. Night at the Museum is the second highest-grossing film of 2006 in the United States and Canada, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
During its international opening weekend of December 22, 2006, the film grossed a figure of an estimated $5 million, with the highest debut coming from South Korea ($5.04 million). The biggest market in the other territories were the UK, Japan, South Korea, and Germany, where it grossed $40.8 million, $30 million, $25.7 million, $22.9 million.
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Night at the Museum has an approval rating of 42% based on 139 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus read, "Parents might call this either a spectacle-filled adventure or a shallow and vapid CG-fest, depending on whether they choose to embrace this on the same level as their kids." As of October 2020, on Metacritic, the film had a score of 48 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". According to CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Justin Chang of Variety magazine wrote: "This rambunctious, "Jumanji"-style extravaganza is a gallery of special effects in search of a story; rarely has so much production value yielded so little in terms of audience engagement." James Berardinelli of Reelviews gave it 2 stars out of 4, and commented on Stiller's performance by stating "It might be fair to give Ben Stiller an 'A' for effort, but to call what he does in this movie 'acting' is a misnomer. He does a lot of running around, occasionally falling down or bumping into things." One positive review by William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, gave it a B−, and stated that the film was "Out to impress and delight a family audience with the pageantry of human and natural history, and that's a surprisingly worthy ambition for a Hollywood comedy."
Museum officials at the American Museum of Natural History have credited the film for increasing the number of visitors during the holiday season by almost 20%. According to a museum official, between December 22, 2006, and January 7, 2007, there were 50,000 more visitors than during the same period the prior year.
The film was released on a 2-Disc DVD edition in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2007. It was released on 1-Disc and 2-Disc DVD editions and Blu-ray Disc format on April 24, 2007, elsewhere.
As of December 6, 2009, the film has sold 9,191,694 DVDs and grossed $153,566,058 in DVD sales.
Night at the Museum was followed by a sequel titled Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which was released on May 22, 2009, in North America. A third film, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, was released on December 19, 2014, in North America.
In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter stated that the Alibaba Pictures Group intended to remake the film. On August 6, 2019, following the purchase of 21st Century Fox and its assets by The Walt Disney Company, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a fully animated sequel to Night at the Museum is in development. The project will be released as a Disney+ exclusive film, as a co-production between Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and 20th Century Studios. Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again was released on December 9, 2022.