Between Christmas falling on a Friday and a slew of strong new releases, this past weekend became the highest-grossing ever as Avatar repeated at the number 1 spot with a smashing $75.6 million.

Avatar claimed the title of highest-grossing second weekend ever, narrowly edging out The Dark Knight’s $75.2 million, after dipping only 2% from its opening weekend’s numbers. $57.9 million of its Christmas haul was from 3D sites, a new record for the format. After 10 days, Avatar’s domestic total sits at a lofty $212.7 million, and with its $410.9 million foreign take, James Cameron is once again king of the world as his latest film’s worldwide total is at a staggering $623.6 million.

The new wide releases all pulled their weight, with Sherlock Holmes leading the pack. The star power of Robert Downey, Jr. helped vault the film into 2nd place with a $62.4 million bow, and its Friday take of $24.6 million handily set the new record for best Christmas day opening. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (I want to destroy that title) meanwhile defied all odds by not only being worse than the original, but out-grossing it as well. It had a weekend haul of $48.9 million for 3rd place, and tallied with its Wednesday opening, the film has hit an unconscionable five-day total of $75.6 million. Numbers like that have me living in terror that a third installment is inevitable. Thanks a lot, kids.

Nancy Meyer once again showed that romantic comedies with adults over 50 years old do, in fact, have an audience. It’s Complicated’s 4th place debut with $22.1 million outdid Meyer’s Something’s Gotta Give, anchored by Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin’s on-screen indiscretions. The Blind Side kept up its impressive run, rounding out the top 5 with $11.5 million.

Up in the Air expanded wide to 1,895 theaters and grossed a healthy $11.3 million for 6th place, but The Princess and the Frog and Nine, to a greater extent, both failed to gain any traction as they finished with $9 million and $5.5 million, respectively. In the specialty market, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus bowed with $124,743 across 4 sites, or a solid $31,186 per-theater average.

There won’t be any new releases until the week after New Years, when a middling trio of wide openers will compete with this past weekend’s juggernauts. Vampire action-thriller Daybreakers hits theaters alongside Amy Adams’ romantic comedy Leap Year and Michael Cera’s teen comedy Youth in Revolt. Leap Year is definitely the easiest sell here so I expect it to finish ahead of the pack, though strong reviews and word-of-mouth makes Daybreakers a dark horse. Youth In Revolt will most likely finish third because though it is also receiving a lot of positive buzz, the film has a bigger mountain to climb with its niche target audience and the Weinstein Company/Dimension’s history of disappointing box office returns. Michael Haneke’s Cannes Palm d’Or winning drama The White Ribbon opens this Wednesday in limited release as well. The year-end record is 58 for 82, or 71%.

Check out the top 12 below, or head on over to Box Office Mojo for the full weekend chart:

New releases highlighted in yellow

Tags: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Avatar, Box Office, Daybreakers, It's Complicated, Leap Year, Nine, Sherlock Holmes, The Blind Side, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, The Princess and the Frog, The White Ribbon, Up In The Air, Youth in Revolt