Word: million
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hollywood gave audiences what they wanted, and moviegoers returned the favor by giving the film industry its favorite present: a record-breaking frame at the box office. According to early studio estimates, North Americans spent some $263 million at theaters this Christmas weekend, obliterating the $254 million mark set in July 2008, when The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! both opened. And what did the multiplex crowds want on the first days of Christmas? Sing along: foreplay from Meryl, three sassy rodents, two blue Pandorans and a sleuth with a killer right hook. (See TIME's 2009 holiday movie preview...
...family goes - the kids to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel; young males to the action film Sherlock Holmes; older females to see Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in It's Complicated; and just about everyone sampling James Cameron's enviro-alien epic, Avatar. The record $85 million amassed on Friday accounts for a lot of tickets, even given the $18.50 price that Avatar is getting in some theaters for its 3-D IMAX version. With the annual domestic box office topping $10 billion for the first time, and a solid week of vacation time for kids...
Getting a jump on the Christmas competition, The Squeakquel opened Wednesday, nabbed a quick $18.8 million and knocked the reigning champ, Avatar, out of the No. 1 slot. The Cameron picture came back to the top the next day. Then on Friday Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie's reworking of the Conan Doyle detective as a brainiac with a brawler's fists, hit the theaters and set a $24.8 million Christmas Day record, beating last year's Marley and Me by more than $10 million - and Avatar by about $1 million. On Saturday, Cameron again bounced back...
...Sunday figures place Avatar's three-day take at $75 million - an increase from the $73 million total announced this time last weekend, but a shade less than the actual $77 million in the final figures released Monday. So things may still change, depending on how many Sunday tickets Avatar sells. When the three-day tally is complete, the movie may have beaten The Dark Knight for the all-time best gross on a second weekend. It has now taken in $212.3 million in the U.S. and Canada, and another $400 million or so abroad. Worldwide, after just 10 days...
...runners-up still have bragging rights. Alvin took in more in its first four days than the early December animated feature The Princess and the Frog did in its first 32 days (18 in wide release). The chipmunks should earn back their $70 million budget in a week or two. And Sherlock Holmes handed Ritchie, once known mainly as Mr. Madonna, his first real hit; the director's five previous features have taken in a total of about $40 million at the North American box office. He achieved success both by turning Holmes from a contemplative sort into an action...