DeadLine: Both Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Warner Bros) as well as Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (Fox) badly trailedthe openings of their previous installments. (Sherlock 1/$62.3M vs Sherlock 2/$40M and Alvin 2/$48.8M vs Alvin 3/$23.5M.) The Robert Downey Jr-starring and Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock 2 total included $1.25M from 1,650 Thursday midnight shows. Audiences keep rejecting Hollywood’s sequels and threequels. Of course, the movie studios point out that both the last Sherlock and Alvin opened either on Christmas or after kids were already out of school. Execs are hoping to make up the difference before year’s end. But more pics will open, too, creating clutter. So if this weekend’s low grosses continue, then the domestic box office slump may very well ruin Christmas for Hollywood.
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