Of the two summer pics Brendan Fraser is starring in, most would bet on "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" to do bigger box office biz, and not on 3-D action-adventure "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

If it's not too late, you may want to rethink laying any money down.

"Journey," from New Line and Walden Media, has turned into a sleeper hit domestically, grossing $72.9 million to date. Being able to charge more for 3-D tickets can vastly improve a pic's B.O. grosses, as evidenced by "Journey," which Warner Bros. is distributing. Film is playing only 2,285 runs; of those, about 854 are digital 3-D screens.

It's looking like "Journey" will ultimately gross around $90 million domestically, making it the most successful 3-D title to date. Last fall, 3-D pic "Beowulf" grossed $81.2 million domestically. At the time, there were roughly 650 digital 3-D screens up and running. 

"Dragon Emperor," from Universal, opened to $40.5 million over weekend. That's pretty good, considering it's been 7 years since the last "Mummy" pic played on the bigscreen. At the same time, "Dragon Emperor" could be in for a rough ride if it sees big declines. Word-of-mouth isn't so good for the film, and when there's so much other product out there, led by "The Dark Knight," good word-of-mouth matters, believe me.

All of this is to say that "Journey" and "Dragon Emperor" could end up much closer than anyone predicted in terms of final box office grosses. That's a win-win for at least one person--Brendan Fraser.