No surprise here that this was the top earner for the Christmas weekend. Christmas weekend is a big movie going weekend too if you hadn't noticed before. Many of us like to take in an afternoon movie with the family after the early morning gift fiasco instead of breaking out the new treadmill and getting to work on the extra holiday fat.
This year with Christmas falling on a Friday it was expected to be a very big weekend, and it set a record. The previous best weekend was the weekend that The Dark Knight opened in July 2008. That weekend the US and Canada opened with the record of $261 Million.
This weekend surpassed that weekend with a total of $278 Million in US and Canada, and taking inflation into account it appears to still be the bigger take according to data from Hollywood.com. The Los Angeles-based firm's data go back to about 1985. It was only a year ago after all.
Led by the 3-D epic "Avatar," which was followed closely by "Sherlock Holmes" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," total estimated theatrical receipts from Friday through Sunday in the U.S. and Canada were $278 million.
"Avatar" sold $75 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada, down just 3% from its opening, in a display of unusually strong momentum. "Sherlock Holmes" started with a very healthy $65.4 million, while "Alvin" collected a solid $50.2 million over the three-day weekend.
