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Christmas Box Office: 'Les Miserables,' 'Django Unchained' Break Holiday Records

The Associated Press, Wednesday, December 26, 2012, 9:27am (PST)

The Hollywood Reporter -- Moviegoers turned out in force on Christmas Day as Tom Hooper's Les Miserables and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained opened to a sizable $18.2 million and $15 million, respectively.

Both movies broke records: Universal's Les Mis scored the highest opening day for a musical and nabbed the top weekday Christmas opening of all time (Sherlock Holmes, opening on a Friday to $24.6 million, remains the record-holder for the biggest Christmas Day opening).

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Les Mis -- touting a cast led by Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried -- received a coveted A CinemaScore. Females, who made up 56 percent of Tuesday's audience, gave the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical an A+.

From The Weinstein Co., Django was equally as impressive. The movie nabbed the top Christmas Day opening for an R-rated film, easily exceeding the $10 million earned by Ali in 2002. It also nabbed the third-best Christmas Day opening of all time after Sherlock and Les Mis. Django, receiving an A- CinemaScore, stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Les Mis and Django -- both awards contenders -- bumped Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey from the No. 1 spot. Hobbit, from New Line and MGM, came in No. 3 with $11.3 million, putting its domestic gross at $168.3 million and its worldwide total at roughly $500 million.

Family comedy Parental Guidance, the third new Christmas Day movie, placed No. 4 with $6.4 million and received an A- CinemaScore. From 20th Century Fox, the movie stars Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei. Rounding out the top five at the domestic box office was Tom Cruise action pic Jack Reacher, which grossed $5.3 million for a five-day domestic total of $17.9 million.

Silver Linings Playbook made a major push on Christmas Day as it essentially expanded nationwide, upping its theater count from roughly 371 to 745 locations. The dramedy, directed by David O. Russell, grossed $1.1 million to place No. 13. From the Weinstein Co., Silver Linings has cumed just north of $21 million.