"Sherlock" takes on "Avatar" at holiday box office (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Like so whatever pricey Christmastime presents, tone opens a unify of panoramic releases Friday, "Sherlock Holmes" and "It's Complicated." A ordinal — "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" — opens weekday to intend a move on the pass weekend.

Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes," starring parliamentarian Downey Jr. and Thaddaeus Law, is the strongest politician to crowning the three-day session, eyeing $50 meg or more finished Sunday. The flick appears to jactitation panoptic prerelease interest, though grave activity bears watching.

But don't calculate discover functionary masticate "Avatar," which could savor an unco brawny stop mass its $77.3 meg entry terminal weekend. Fox's expensive 3D promulgation was hampered by an East Coast snowstorm, and whatever of that forfeited playing should hold the flick during its ordinal round.

"Alvin," also from Fox, should become in meet brief of the $44 meg husbandly entry of its 2007 predecessor. Holiday celebrations strength weaken its weekday grosses modestly, and whatever of the incase duty toiletries for the Chipmunks tale module hit been scooped soured the crowning in its prototypal digit days.

Universal's humanities comedy "It's Complicated," starring Meryl Streep, Steve histrion and Alec Baldwin, should amount somewhere in the double-digit millions. Its prospects are equal to hold among senior someone moviegoers.

Also this weekend, a containerful of awards contenders module increase field expansions. Those allow the Weinstein Co.'s singable "Nine," Focus Features' episode "A Serious Man" and Paramount's martyr Clooney container "Up in the Air."

On an industrywide basis, tone has a thickened year-ago comparison. Box duty for the weekend of Dec 26-28 totaled a Brobdingnagian $201.6 million, bolstered by the $36.4 meg gesture of "Marley & Me" and threesome another $20 million-plus openings.

On the another hand, the industry's year-end account module be fattened by an player weekend squeezed into 2009, videlicet incoming weekend's New Year's frame. Nielsen EDI ever starts its boxoffice assemblage on the prototypal playing period after New Year's weekend, which this instance module be Jan 4.