Sherlock Holmes and Avatar Break Box Office Records, Including The Big One

This holiday weekend was a big one for Hollywood, with several records being broken, thanks to the two most anticipated films of the month and a chipmunk. First of all, Sherlock Holmes broke the record for biggest Christmas Day opening with $24.6 million on Friday. Guess who’s #2 on that list: Avatar, which had an equally impressive $23.1 million on Friday, and even beat Holmes for the weekend. What makes Avatar‘s weekend even more special is that it had the best second weekend ever for a film with $75.6 million (The Dark Knight had previously held the record with $75.2 million). That’s a drop of only 2% from its first weekend’s $77 million opening. Any concerns about the $230 million plus movie making back its budget are out the window now that its worldwide gross is $623.6 million as of today.


You might have guessed that these large numbers might mean something larger for the weekend, and you’d be right. With $273 million, this was the highest grossing weekend EVER in film history, out surpassing last year’s July opening of The Dark Knight, which helped bring in a total $260.5 million for the box office. The great opening for Sherlock Holmes also made history, as it helped Warner Bros. become the first studio to ever gross $2 billion in a year. Overall, not a bad weekend.


Here is the full top 10 list for the Christmas weekend, via Box Office Mojo:

1. Avatar – $75.6
2. Sherlock Holmes – $62.4M
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel – $48.9M
4. It’s Complicated – $22.1M
5. The Blind Side – $11.5M
6. Up in the Air – $11.3M
7. The Princess and the Frog – $9M
8. Nine – $5.45M
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans? – $5M
10. Invictus – $4.04M