‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ Tops New Year's Box Office

Tom Cruise' latest adventure as Agent Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol has taken the top spot at the U.S. box office, over the three-day New Year's weekend. The action-packed thriller is the fourth installment in the series and was released worldwide on Dec. 16.

The film led the list for the second straight week, with an estimated $31.3 million grossed between Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, according to Rentrak.

As of Jan. 1, the film made $324.9 million worldwide, with revenues from North America weighing in at approximately $134.1 million. Incidentally, this is the first time a Tom Cruise film has crossed the $100 million mark since Mission: Impossible III (2006).

The film scored 93 percent on film-critic aggregate Web site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 179 reviews, making it the best received of the series.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros' Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows took second, with $22.1 million over the weekend, bringing its total to $132.1 million domestically and $181.1 million worldwide.

The animated sequel to the 2007 film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, raked in $18.3 million in its third week, bringing its total to $94.6 million domestically.

Here is a list of Rentrak's box office collection estimates, for the period Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, for the top 12 films...

Rank	Film Name	Distributor Name	Weekend Revenue	Cume Revenue	Locs	Loc Avg
1	Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol	Paramount	31,250,000	134,139,000	3,455	9,044
2	Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows	Warner Bros.	22,095,000	132,100,000	3,703	5,966
3	Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked	20th Century Fox	18,250,000	94,609,335	3,724	4,900
4	War Horse	Disney	16,940,000	42,969,000	2,547	6,650
5	The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo	Sony	16,300,000	57,111,473	2,914	5,593
6	We Bought A Zoo	20th Century Fox	14,300,000	41,787,317	3,163	4,521
7	The Adventures Of Tintin	Paramount	12,000,000	47,841,000	3,087	3,887
8	New Year's Eve	Warner Bros	6,710,000	46,372,000	2,225	3,015
9	The Darkest Hour	Summit Entertainment	4,300,000	13,278,000	2,327	1,847
10	The Descendants	Fox Searchlight	3,650,000	39,674,646	758	4,815
11	The Muppets	Disney	2,588,000	82,456,000	1,541	1,679
12	Hugo	Paramount	2,525,000	49,540,000	951	2,655