'Ghost Protocol' tops crowded Christmas frame

Paramount's ''Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol'' ongoing its Christmas B.O. domination, by having an up-to-date believed three-day gross of $26.5 million and four-day estimations at $40.3 million, pushing the film's Stateside cume to $72.six million by Monday.''Ghost Protocol'' capped a crowded frame, including five other wide releases a few days ago.Soph-sesh holdover ''Sherlock Holmes: A Game Title of Shadows'' handled to position second, by having an believed $17.8 million in 72 hours. Pic's cume through Sunday stands at $76.six million, positioning ''Sherlock'' like a solid contender to become among the holiday season's best-grossing domestic player.Sony's adult-specific new entry ''The Girl Using the Dragon Tattoo'' published a 3-day tally of $13 million for any domestic cume of $21.4 million. ''Tattoo'' opened up 12 ,. 21 for latenight tests.Although the weekend saw sluggish business with Christmas Eve falling on the Saturday, B.O. experts expect theater visitors to increase by mid-mid-day today which should complete towards the year.Most galleries intend to release four-day estimations early Monday.One of the weekend's some of the best gamers, Fox's family holdover ''Alvin and also the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked'' totalled an believed $13.3 million from Friday to Sunday, having a domestic cume of $50.3 million.''Chipwrecked'' handidly beat the market's other kidpic, Par's ''The Adventures of Tintin,'' which obtained a 3-day opening gross of $9.a million and $14.3 million in four days. ''Tintin'' released Wednesday for any Stateside tally of $22.3 million through Monday, including Canadian grosses.Fox's Cameron Crowe-helmed ''We Purchased a Zoo'' opened up Friday, posting in 72 hours an believed $7.8 million.In the niche B.O., the Weinstein Co. extended its pair, ''The Artist'' and ''My Week with Marilyn,'' using the latter pic playing at 602 locations, yielding an believed three-day gross just north of $500,000. ''The Artist,'' which performed at far less engagements (167), really did much better than ''Marilyn,'' tallying through Sunday an believed $857,000. ''Marilyn'' has cumed $6.9 million ''The Artist,'' $2.4 million.David Glasser, COO at Weinstein, credited that towards the studio's patient rollout technique for ''The Artist.''''People continue to be finding the film,'' Glasser stated. ''Now, what we are seeing within the exits is the fact that individuals are being released from it saying, 'That wasn't things i expected.'''Launching wide today are Disney-DreamWorks' ''War Horse'' and Summit's ''The Pitch-dark Hour.'' Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com