‘Holmes’ Snatches Christmas Day Box Office from ‘Avatar’
In the biggest Christmas day opening for a film ever, Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes took in $24.9 million. It beat the record of $14.4 million for last year’s record-setter, Marley and Me.
James Cameron’s 3D extravaganza Avatar was close behind, however, and begin its second week with a $23.5 million day, making it’s eight-day total close to $160.8 million. The film has easily made back its estimated $300 million budget, and is still going strong. However, it still took second place at the box office.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, FOX’s newest children’s film, took third that day with $14. 5 million, though since Wednesday it has garnered a respectable $41.3 million.
Fourth was the Nancy Meyer comedy It’s Complicated, starring Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, which enticed adult filmgoers to cough up $7.1 million on its first day.
In a distant fifth (surprisingly enough) was the much-buzzed-about George Clooney film Up in the Air, which was given a wide release on Christmas day but only scared up $3.7 million, only slightly higher than the sixth place Blind Side took for the day ($3.5 million).
For Christmas day, that’s not bad at all.
Sam McPherson got his start blogging for Lostpedia, a job which he still maintains. He also writes for TVOvermind. His favorite films are Fight Club and Donnie Darko, though he has a greatly varied interest in films of all genres.
