Big Box Office Weekend

Hollywood got a Christmas present for the Christmas weekend–a record $264 million in ticket sales.

Leading the way was “Avatar” with just a two percent drop-off in ticket sales from its opening weekend.  The James Cameron directed film took in $75 million and has already passed the $200 million mark.

In second place was “Sherlock Holmes” with $65.4 million.

Third place went to “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” with $50.2 million, higher the opening for the original installment.

Theatrical tracker Box Office Mojo says it was the biggest opening weekend ever, narrowly beating the mid-July 2008 weekend when The Dark Knight pushed box office receipts to a new high of $253 million.

President and publisher Brandon Gray says Christmas is traditionally a busy time of the year at the box office, and when Christmas Day falls on a Friday, receipts tend to skyrocket. “But it still needs attractive movies,” he says, “and this year there were three huge movies everyone wanted to see.”

Another new film, “It’s Complicated”, opened in fourth with $22.1 million. The No. 5 position on the weekend box office charts went to “Up in the Air”, which collected $11.8 million its fourth week.