Cinema: Holiday weekend box office: Ho-hum or ho-ho-ho?

By Daniel Frankel

It was the good, the not great ... and the ugly at the domestic boxoffice.

We'llstart with the not great.

Also:More box-office news from TheWrap

With the overall North American market down more than 50 percent from thesame"Avatar"-led weekend last year, Universalcomedy-franchise installment"Little Fockers"led the box office, grossing $47.2million from Wednesday through Sunday and $32.9 million from Friday to Sunday, according to studio estimates.

TheBen Stiller/Robert De Nirofranchise undershottracking by more than $10 million, with pre-release expectations coming in at around $60 million. With Christmas Day grosses spiking to $14.6 million from $5.1 million on Friday, however, Universal officials are hopeful for solid play going forward, with moviegoers' Christmas-week distractions out of the way.

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"We're optimistic that the jump from Christmas Eve toChristmas is a good indicator of how the coming week will play out,"saidUniversal marketing president Eddie Egan.

More:What did the criticssay?

Facing a much uglier reality, Fox saw itsJack Black-led comedy"Gulliver's Travels"debut to only $7.2 million afterdebuting at 2,546 theaters Saturday. The two-day gross was right around exceedingly dour expectations for the $115 million film, which came into the weekend with some Lilliputian-sized tracking numbers.

Related:2010's cinematic bummers

Thegood news, meanwhile, came out of Paramount, where Coenbrothers' Western"True Grit"grossed $36.8 million over its first fivedays, and $25.6 million over the three-day weekend, besting tracking by about $10 million.

Here's how the top 10 at the box office shaped up over thethree-day weekend:

"Little Fockers"$32.9 million

"True Grit"$25.6million

"Tron"$20.1 million

"Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader"$10.8 million

"Yogi Bear"$8.8 million

"The Fighter"$8.5 million

"Gulliver'sTravels"$7.2 million

"Tangled"$6.5 million

"Black Swan"$6.6 million

"The Tourist"$5.7 million

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