Boxing Biopic Sets Christmas Day Record, but Falls Short of Top Spot

Will Smith's portrayal of Muhammad Ali delivered a powerful punch at the box office on December 25, generating an impressive $10.2 million opening day performance and shattering the previous Christmas Day debut record held by "Patch Adams" ($8 million).

Despite this remarkable achievement, Sony's boxing drama couldn't claim the championship belt from "The Lord of the Rings," which maintained its dominance with $11.6 million on Christmas Day, contributing to its five-day total of $66.1 million.

The holiday weekend saw unprecedented success across the industry, with a record-breaking $199 million five-day gross. This represents a significant increase from last year's $155.2 million four-day frame when Christmas fell on a Monday. The strong performance has helped push the annual box office to an all-time high of $7.78 billion, up 8.9% compared to the same period last year.

Industry analyst Dan Marks noted that a Tuesday Christmas creates favorable conditions for the movie business, as Christmas Eve (typically a slow day) falling on Monday minimizes its negative impact on weekend numbers.

Not all new releases fared well, however. Miramax's "Kate & Leopold" struggled with just $2.5 million across 2,442 screens on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, established films continued to perform strongly. "Ocean's Eleven" reached the $102 million mark after just three weeks, while "Vanilla Sky," "Jimmy Neutron," "Harry Potter," and "Monsters Inc." all posted solid numbers. Universal's "A Beautiful Mind" also showed promise after expanding from 11 to 524 screens.

Sony's decision to postpone "Ali" from its original December 7 release date proved strategic. "We had a big-event movie, and Christmas was the big-event date," explained Sony distribution executive Jeff Blake. "We thought we could make a big impact."

The film's success was largely attributed to Will Smith's acclaimed performance, which recently earned him a Golden Globe nomination. "The strongest thing about the film was Will Smith as Ali. That was our winning combination," Blake added.

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