Box Office Report: 'Sherlock Holmes,' 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' Lead Another Scrooge Weekend

The beginning of the year-end holidays didn't bring much relief to the domestic box office on Friday as Warner Bros.' sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked grossed noticeably less than hoped for, while the weekend itself could end up being down by more than 10 percent following the worst weekend in years.

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Game of Shadows topped the Friday box office with $14.7 million for a projected weekend opening in the low $40 million range -- compared to a $62.3 million opening for Sherlock Holmes in 2009.

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Game of Shadows wasn't likely to reach the same levels as the first Sherlock, which opened on Christmas day and had the  benefit of the year-end holidays being fully underway. Still, most box office observers believed Game of Shadows would hit $50 million considering it's the sequel to a box office hit, although Warner gave a more conservative range of $40 million to $50 million.

Last year, Disney's Tron Legacy opened on the same weekend to $44 million after grossing $17.5 million on Friday.

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Chip-Wrecked grossed a meek $6.8 million on Friday from 3,723 theaters -- well less than the $13.3 million earned by the original Alvin and the Chipmunks on the same Friday in 2007. The 3D GGI/live-action hybrid is expected to gross $24 million to $25 million for the weekend, compared to $44.3 million for the first Alvin and $48.9 million for the sequel, which opened on Dec. 23 in 2009.

But the news isn't all bad. Films can rack up huge grosses during the year-end holidays, and Game of Shadows and Chip-Wrecked could make up ground. Tron went on to earn $172 million at the domestic box office.

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Game of Shadows, directed by Guy Ritchie and returning Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in the title roles, received a promising A- CinemaScore, compared to a B for the first film, which grossed $209 million domestically and $315 million internationally. Of those buying tickets on Friday, a full 68 percent were over the age of 25, while men made up 59 percent of the audience.

Chip-Wrecked, appealing heavily to families as expected, earned a B+ CinemaScore, compared to an A for the original.

One bright spot at the Friday box office was the limited launch of Paramount's Tom Cruise starrer Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which opened in 425 IMAX and large-format screens, grossing an estimated $4.7 million for a projected $12 million weekend (The $4.6 million includes $1.1 million in Thursday evening and midnight runs). The pic opens nationwide on Dec. 21.

Anecdotal evidence suggests a big draw for Ghost Protocol is an extended preview of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, a Warner Bros. pic (there's a separte teaser of Dark Knight Rises attached to Sherlock).

Ghost Protocol came in No. 3 on Friday.