Below are the top 12 weekend final numbers from the North American box office:

1. Avatar - $68,490,688
2. Sherlock Holmes - $36,612,481
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel - $35,189,653
4. It's Complicated - $18,802,965
5. The Blind Side - $11,912,749
6. Up In The Air - $10,720,052
7. The Princess And The Frog - $9,824,311
8. Did You Hear About The Morgans? - $4,932,338
9. Invictus - $3,909,312
10. Nine - $3,901,203
11. The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $3,442,263
12. 3 Idiots - $1,494,542

Overall, the US Box Office was down 20% on last weekend's gross.

Despite being 20% down overall, the box office basically repeated Christmas Day's box office pattern (and performance) with New Year's Day falling on a Friday. Most of the films stayed in the same positions as last weekend.

Continuing its amazing run is James Cameron's AVATAR, which broke the box office record for largest third weekend ever with $68.4 million. The previous record holder was SPIDER-MAN with $45 million. The film has cruised through to over $350 million domestically in just 17 days, and equally impressive is its worldwide total of $1.02 billion. The film now sits at number four on the worldwide list, and will likely finish at number two, behind Cameron's previous record breaker TITANIC.

SHERLOCK HOLMES, despite sufferring a bigger drop of 41% still managed a strong $36.6 million over the weekend. The film has earned an impressive $138.7 million since opening.

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL continues its financial successs (if not critical success), adding another $35.1 million to bring its overall domestic total to $155.9 million.

IT'S COMPLICATED managed to register another good weekend with $18.8 million, taking its domestic total to $59.1 million. This is a good result, particularly with the fierce competition in the market place at the moment, and is effectively working well as a counter-programming choice for the audience.

Both THE BLIND SIDE and UP IN THE AIR took advantage of the holiday Friday weekend, earning over $10 million with $11.9 million and $10.7 million respectively. The films have earned a health $208.4 million and $44.3 million respectively.