Weekend Box Office: December 16 - 18

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - $40 million

2.  Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - $23.5 million

3.  Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - $13 million

4.  New Year's Eve - $7.4 million

5.  The Sitter - $4.4 million

6.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - $4.3 million

7.  Young Adult - $3.65 million

8.  Hugo - $3.62 million

9.  Arthur Christmas - $3.6 million

10.  The Muppets - $3.4 million

The box office showed some slight signs of life this weekend, but not much considering that a pair of sequels opened much lower than their previous films did.  This weekend's winner, Sherlock Holmes, opened with $40 million, which isn't bad...when you leave out the fact that the original film grossed $62 million back in 2009.  The latest Alvin & the Chipmunks film opened lower than both of its previous films with $23.5 million. 

Granted, the previous films in both of those franchises opened up on Christmas weekend, so they had the benefit of families being off from school or work to have time for the movies.  With the holiday vacation time still a week away, it's within the realm of possibility that both of these films will see a boost next week.

In a limited (and mostly IMAX) release, the fourth Mission Impossible film did very well this weekend, earning $13 million.  And before anyone proclaims that the infamous prologue for The Dark Knight Rises was responsible for the film's good business thsi weekend, keep in mind that the preview is only showing on 42 of it's 425 locations.  So it seems to be doing well on its own.  We'll know for sure after the film goes into wide release on Wednesday.

For some reason, Christmas seemed like the perfect time to release the American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so that hits theaters next weekend.  It will be competing against the latest 3D motion-capture family film, The Adventures of Tintin, as well as Matt Damon's We Bought a Zoo. 

So...lots of choices for the rest of the year.  Happy Holidays, everyone!