Talk about a prophetic title: I Am Legend [1] has proven to be, well, legendary. Taking in $76.5 million in its opening weekend [2], the Will Smith sci-fi thriller beat out Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($72.6 million) to become the highest-grossing December movie [3] ever. In the history of box office sales in general, I Am Legend's opening weekend is the 16th highest-grossing of all time.

In addition, the updated CGI version of Alvin and the Chipmunks [4] did extremely well, bringing in $45 million. By contrast, however, The Golden Compass [4] drastically underperformed at the box office, coming in third place but totaling just $9 million in sales its second weekend in theaters. Enchanted [5] came in fourth place with No Country for Old Men [6] rounding out the top five. The returning film that did the most pleasingly is Atonement [7], which jumped from No. 15 to No. 9 on the charts, this weekend bringing in $1.8 million. Yay!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. [8]