HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — It was a holly jolly Christmas at the weekend box office.
Led by James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar and several blockbuster releases, moviegoers shattered the weekend box-office record with an estimated $278 million in tickets sales, according to studio estimates released Sunday. The total broke the previous record of roughly $253 million set in July 2008, which coincided with the The Dark Knight debut.
Avatar remained atop the box office for the second week in a row with $75 million in sales. The film outdistanced the debut of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, which finished second at $65.4 million.
Two more debuts, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ($50.2 million) and It’s Complicated ($22.1 million), finished third and fourth, respectively.
The top five was rounded out by George Clooney’s Up in the Air, which had sales of $11.8 million.
Weekend Box Office
1. Avatar, $75 million
2. Sherlock Holmes, $65.4 million
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, $50.2 million
4. It’s Complicated, $22.1 million
5. Up in the Air, $11.8 million
6. The Blind Side, $11.7 million
7. The Princess and the Frog, $8.7 million
8. Nine, $5.5 million
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, $5 million
10. Invictus, $4.4 million
