Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol is the big winner of the holiday box office take this year, beating out runner-up Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with an estimated $42.2 million in ticket sales over the four-day holiday weekend.
The fourth in the Mission: Impossible film series starring Tom Cruise has already raked in over $78.6 million at the domestic box office so far. M:I:4 reportedly cost around $145 million to make, but is already on track to beat the total income of 2006’s Million: Impossible III, which took in over $134 million in domestic sales and almost $264 million overseas.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the sequel starring Robert Downey Jr., came in second over the weekend with a total earnings of over $59.3 million the past two weeks. Family friendly film Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, followed up in third. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo debuted in a solid fourth place, with Steven Spielberg‘s Adventures of Tintin in fifth.
While David Fincher‘s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo weekend box office opening was respectable, I can’t help but wonder if the timing was a little weird in releasing this film over the Christmas holiday. After all, Christmas isn’t necessarily the time you want to go watch a film full of rape, murder and psychological torture — no matter how well done it is.
