The game was certainly afoot at the national box office over Christmas weekend

Audiences in North America gave Hollywood a huge Christmas gift in the form of a record box office this weekend. There seemed to be a little something for everyone to venture out and see at cinemas, which should continue over the next ten days and help push the record $10 billion box office even further into the books.

Turning into an even bigger event than anticipated, James Cameron's megahit "Avatar" grabbed another $75 million in sales from 3,456 screens (most in 3-D and some in IMAX 3-D) to bring its ten-day total to an unreal $212.5 million (with overseas added in, the film has made $617 million to date) with no slowing down in sight. Higher ticket prices are helping, but word-of-mouth is really what is driving the film through the roof. 20th Century Fox is no doubt breathing a major sigh of relief as the super-expensive film is playing exactly the way they were hoping: as a must-see cinematic event.

Upcoming business this week and next holiday weekend should help the film soar to the $320-350 million domestic mark by the start of the new year. Considering how much people love the film, I think it's a no-brainer that "Avatar" will wind up becoming 2009's highest grossing film when all is said and done. Despite my indifference to the film, I will be only more than happy to see Cameron's 3-D opus displace what is currently the number one film of the year: the cinematic abortion known as "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".

Warner Brothers is another studio having a very Merry Christmas with its big release, Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes". Opening on a wide 3,626-screen count, the Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law mystery thriller pulled in a huge $65.4 million in estimate ticket sales. A mix of comedy, action and mystery, the film's debut gave Ritchie his biggest opening yet. In fact, the three-day take for what is sure to be the start of a new franchise was more than all of the director's films overall North American gross combined. Like "Avatar", word-of-mouth is solid on "Sherlock Holmes" and should play just fine throughout the upcoming weeks.

Third place went to "Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel", which pulled in $50.2 million over the weekend and $77 million since last Wednesday. The follow up to the 2007 family hit, also released during Christmastime, predictably got hammered by critics (you expected otherwise?) but families didn't care as they got the film off to a huge start. Fox is no doubt putting in motion plans for a part three for 2011. God help us all.

Fourth and fifth went to two films aimed squarely at the adult market. In fourth place was the Nancy Myers comedy "It's Complicated" with an uncomplicated $22 million in ticket sales, while Paramount finally opened Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" wide and pulled in $11.8 million over the weekend for a $24.5 million gross to date. In contrast to the top three films, "Complicated" and "Air"s grosses seemed rather small. But films aimed at adults rarely open like gangbusters. They usually open smaller and stick around longer due to word-of-mouth. "Up in the Air" will have a bigger advantage thanks to the upcoming awards shows.

In sixth place was Warner's long-running winner "The Blind Side", which saw its grosses jump up 17% despite losing 641 screens in its sixth week. Adding $11.7 million to its gross, "Blind Side" now stands at a superb $184.4 million to date with the $200 million mark sure to be tackled within the next seven days or so. Not too bad for a movie that opened the same weekend as the "Twilight" sequel, which itself pulled in another $3 million this weekend to land in eleventh place and pull its total to the $280 million mark.

Seventh place went to Disney's traditionally-animated musical "The Princess and the Frog", which went against the tide and dropped 28% from the week before to haul in $8.7 million to bring its take up to $63.5 million. No doubt effected by the opening of the Seventh Seal, I mean, the "Chipmunks" film, the Disney film is not performing as well as anticipated. While the movie might finish around the $90 million mark domestically, the gross will still be well below those generated by Pixar.

Expanding from four screens to 1,418, Rob Marshall's much-maligned movie version of the Broadway musical "Nine" imploded with a weak $5.5 million weekend take. While a critically-maligned film such as "Alvin and the Chipmunks" or "New Moon" can do just fine without good reviews, a film such as "Nine" or "The Lovely Bones" is dead in the water without positive critical praise.

Rounding out the top ten were two other box office disappointments, "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" and the Clint Eastwood sports drama "Invictus". "Morgans" dropped 25% from its awful opening to pull in $5 million to bring the film's ten-day take to just under $16 million, while "Invictus" rose 5% to pull in $4.4 million to bring its three-week take to $23.5 million, well below what Eastwood has been accustomed to this past decade.

The last opener for Christmas weekend was a four-screen debut of Terry Gilliam's latest fantasy, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", which pulled in a decent $132,000 from the quartet of cinemas. The film may pull in the Gilliam faithful as well as those who want to see the late Heath Ledger in his final role, but I doubt many others will bother. I saw the film in Paris back in November and I thought it was a tedious mess that was a chore to sit through despite the best efforts of Ledger, Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits (as The Devil!).

Next weekend will no doubt see the top five repeat their positions as no new films debut, aside from a NY/LA debut of the foreign film "The White Ribbon".