Tom Cruise takes No. 1 at the box office

Tom Cruise got a very nice Christmas present this year in the form of a $26.5 million weekend. The latest installment in a defining series for Cruise, Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol, made No. 1 at the box office on the holiday weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The other movies this weekend made pretty modest ticket sales, despite predictions that it would be a strong finish to the year. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, despite having phenomenal popularity as a book, didn’t manage to rival the box-office intake of the fourth Mission Impossible. According to Fox News, it only managed to pull in at No. 4, behind Mission Impossible, as well as behind last week’s Nos. 1 and 2, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, which dropped to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Chipwrecked and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo together did not total as much over the weekend as Cruise and company, with Chipwrecked pulling in $13.3 million and Dragon Tattoo pulling in $13 million.

It was a tough box-office weekend in general because of the holiday. Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday, meaning the day of the week that is usually a very strong one for movies drew very little crowds.