Sherlock Holmes Tops Avatar At Record Setting Christmas Day Box Office

Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes edged out James Cameron's Avatar to win Christmas Day at the box office, $24.9 million to $23.6 million. Avatar is currently tracking to smash $200 million in just 10 days of release (on Sunday) and should hit $250 million by Wednesday (in only 13 days of release).

But the bigger news is that, even though we're in a recession, Christmas Day ticket sales have destroyed previous years records. The record for a Christmas Day opening was set last year when Marley and Me grossed $14.4 million. In fact, if you add the grosses of the the top three films of Christmas Day 2008 you would get $35 million. If you add the Christmas gross of this year's top three films, you get $63 million. [reuters]