Merry Christmas, James Cameron! For that matter, same to everyone else in the movie industry, because it was a happy holiday indeed with more box office records falling by the wayside. Customers packed the cinemas bigtime to see Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Sherlock and Dr. Watson — but mainly Avatar, which repeated its big haul from last week to earn $75 million for a second weekend in a row topping the box office. As for the records that fell: the $278 million haul from this weekend’s movies represents the biggest box office weekend of all time, topping the $260.8 million record set in from July of 2008! Christmas day saw a haul of $91 million, which beat last year’s record of $75 million!

It’s pretty amazing stuff. When the final weekend figures were counted up last weekend Avatar made $77 million, and this haul represents only a 2 percent drop. Overall, the domestic haul for Avatar is now up to $212,268,000. The per screen average was a big $21,701. No doubt about it now, this movie is rolling in the dough and promises to keep on making money for weeks on end.

The race at the top proved to be very close. Sherlock Holmes did especially good business at $65 million and actually finished in first place on opening day with $24.9 million. Most other weekends, that kind of performance would be enough to win first place at the box office by a wide margin, not just for one night. Same for the $50 million weekend for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which during its five day opening period has grossed $77,051,000. That’s better numbers than what the original got! Alvin also topped Avatar on Wednesday, hauling in $18,801,277 for a first-place finish, though Avatar moved back in front the next day.

As for the others, It’s Complicated also did good business for the weekend, with a $22 million haul. And Up in the Air grossed $11 million.

The weekend results are as follows:

1. Avatar – $75,000,000
2. Sherlock Holmes – $65,380,000
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel – $50,200,000
4. It’s Complicated – $22,114,000
5. Up in the Air – $11,755,000
6. The Blind Side-  $11,730,000
7. The Princess and the Frog – $8,683,000
8. Nine – $5,544,000
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans?-  $5,000,000
10. Invictus-  $4,390,000

This weekend marks the cap to an amazing box office year which saw yet another record set for overall box office grosses: over $10.5 billion. And we may not be done yet. With this kind of performance from one week to the next Avatar could be in a position to maybe, just maybe, beat out Titanic for the greatest box office haul of all time. I’m not going to rule it out based on this weekend’s numbers. Hollywood served up its toughest competition against Avatar this weekend, and Avatar not only still won, but made $75 million! That’s a sure fire indicator that this may just be the start of something big. I think Avatar is going to keep on winning for weeks to come. Merry Christmas, James Cameron, and happy new year!

See you later this week for more predictions and prognostications here at The Reject Report!