"Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" stayed at the top of the box office again this holiday weekend, taking in $38.3 million over four days. The fourth of the "Mission: Impossible" movies is on track to become the highest-grossing of the series.
And just like last week, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" was No. 2 in North America and "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," was No. 3. "Sherlock" grossed $21 million over three days and $26.5 million over the four-day holiday weekend, while "Alvin" took $16.4 million over three days and $21 million over all four.
All three movies are in their third week of release.
For the three days, the overall box office is down about 3 percent -- but for the four-day period, the box office is up 10 percent compared to last year.
That's reason for optimism, Chris Aronson, Fox's distribution chief, told TheWrap Monday morning.
"There are eight movies that did 10 million or more dollars last week -- that's significant," Aronson said. "And seven movies did $26 million or more. ... All of these films are going to continue to play well into January."
In specialty releases, the Weinstein Company's "Iron Lady" opened to a spectacular $280,409 -- a per-location average of $70,102. And "The Descendants," from Fox Searchlight, returned to the top 10 in its seventh week. The Alexander Payne movie has now grossed more than $40 million domestically.
Also read: Box Office 2011: Lessons Learned From a Deadly Year
Warner Bros. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," meanwhile, which opens in wide release Jan. 20, grossed $149,000 at six theaters -- an average of $24,833 per location over the four days.
The movie's audience increased by 56 percent from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day.
"Mission: Impossible," meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down. Brad Bird's PG-13 movie, which had a budget estimated at $145 million, is expected to gross more than $600 million worldwide. The first "Mission: Impossible" movie, in 1996, grossed $457.7 million worldwide. The second took $546 million and the third, in 2006, grossed $397.8 million.
"M:I:4" helped propel Paramount to $5.17 billion worldwide -- more than any other studio -- in 2011.
The other story of the weekend is "War Horse," DreamWorks' World War I drama, which exceeded expectations.
The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, grossed $14.4 million over three days and $19.2 million over four. That puts it just behind Sony's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" for the three-day period and just ahead of it for the four.
"Dragon," directed by David Fincher, now has grossed a total of $60 million.
Disney, which distributes for DreamWorks, released the PG-13 "War Horse" on Christmas Day. The movie, which cost about $70 million to make, now has grossed $45.5 million.
Dave Hollis, executive vice president of distribution at Disney, told TheWrap that "War Horse" opened strong among older audiences in the heartland and now is expanding to younger audiences in metropolitan areas of the country.
