Weekend Box-Office: December 23-25, 2011

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Mission Accomplished!

Christmas wasn’t just busy for the dude in the red suit this year, as the Sunday holiday itself ended up being fairly big at the box office (note that the weekend figures below are for the traditional 3-day Fri.-Sun. weekend, but the totals include Monday estimates). It’s not a monumental weekend overall, but MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL climbed to the top with a $29.5M grab ($46.2M including Monday), bringing its tally up to $78.5M since it opened in IMAX on December 16th. Good news for Tom, director Brad Bird and fans of modern action-espionage flicks.

The other new releases didn’t quite hit such holiday heights. David Fincher’s adaptation of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was perhaps too bleak for the holly jolly holiday and only hit third on the chart with $12.7M (if you look at it as a 4-day take, TATTOO is actually in fourth behind ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED). Lisbeth Salander also wasn’t tough enough to beat Robert Downey Jr., as SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS easily took second place in its second week with $20.2M for the 3-day and a grand total of $90.5M so far.

Those digital critters were also a top choice for families over the holiday weekend, with ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED chipping off another $12.6M and proving to be a more enticing option than THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN and WE BOUGHT A ZOO, which both brought in close to the same amount over the 3-day. Those were clearly the selections for family crowds — THE MUPPETS might have barely squeaked into the Top 10, but HUGO and ARTHUR CHRISTMAS are history.

TINTIN may not ever be a colossal hit in the US but it’s already made $240M overseas, so director Steven Spielberg can breathe a sigh of relief and watch his WAR HORSE also get some attention (and some decent audience and critical response) with $7.5M on its Christmas Day opening, and even more on Monday. The other Christmas release, the alien invasion flick THE DARKEST HOUR, couldn’t say the same, landing on the chart below the much-reviled romcom NEW YEAR’S EVE.

Outside the chart, limited releases THE ARTIST, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, CARNAGE and A DANGEROUS METHOD continue strong business, as did the limited premieres of EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE and Angelina Jolie’s directing debut IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY.

With no major new releases for a couple of weeks, all the same movies will be playing in the sandbox for a while. And even though next weekend presents a similar challenge to the box office with New Year’s Eve on Saturday night, lots of vacation time for people means that business should be solid almost every day until 2012. Did you go to the movies over the Christmas weekend? VOTE HERE!