'Mission: Impossible' Hangs In at No. 1

Tom Cruise dangles high above Dubai in the latest 'Mission Impossible.'

"Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol" closed out the year with a bang at the domestic box office, but movie-theater attendance in 2011 slipped to a 16-year low, according to Hollywood.com.

In total, Hollywood films sold 1.3 billion tickets in North America last year, grossing $10.2 billion, down 3.4% from their 2010 box-office gross of $10.6 billion.
Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection

Tom Cruise dangles high above Dubai in the latest 'Mission Impossible.'

One of the few bright spots for the holiday season was the fourth installment of the "Mission: Impossible" series, starring Tom Cruise and distributed by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.

The $145 million film earned $38.3 million in the U.S. and Canada over the four-day New Year's holiday weekend, bringing its North American total to $141.2 million in three weeks.
Last week it became Mr. Cruise's first lead-role film since 2006's "Mission: Impossible III" to surpass $100 million at the box office.

The new "Mission" film has grossed an additional $225.3 million abroad. In total, Paramount reaped $3.2 billion abroad in 2011, the first time any studio has crossed the $3 billion barrier, the studio said.

In an interview, Paramount Chairman Brad Grey said that, despite softening ticket sales, audiences aren't tiring of sequels or any particular genre. "There's no lack of appetite," Mr. Grey said. "The films just have to be well done."

In an unusual move, Paramount released "Ghost Protocol" early at 425 large-screen theaters, mostly Imax Corp. locations. Mr. Grey called the strategy an "experiment." So far, 24% of the domestic gross of "Ghost Protocol" has come from Imax theaters.

In the absence of any new wide releases last week, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Pictures, and "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," from News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, were again the second- and third-highest grossing films, with respective grosses of $26.5 million and $21 million over the long holiday weekend.
News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.

Rounding out the top five were DreamWorks Pictures' "War Horse," distributed by Walt Disney Co., and an adaptation of the best-selling novel "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" from Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures.
In limited release, several new titles delivered solid opening numbers. Weinstein Co.'s historical drama "The Iron Lady," starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, earned a strong $280,409 at four theaters. The film is slated to move into about 500 theaters on Jan. 13, said Weinstein Co. distribution head Erik Lomis.

The dramas "A Separation," from Sony Pictures Classics, and "Pariah," from Comcast Corp.'s Focus Features, earned $79,481 and $65,000, respectively, in limited release.