Box Offices, final weekend of 2011 - Tom Cruise Is No Meryl Streep (Neither's Anyone Else, for That Matter) (E-OnLine)

Today 11:53 AM PST by Joal Ryan

Paramount Pictures, The Weinstein Co.

For a second straight holiday weekend, Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocal led the box office.

But it was Meryl Streep's Iron Lady that really ruled.

Debuting at four theaters, the Streep Oscar vehicle, a biopic of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, averaged a New Year's weekend-best $55,000 per screen, BoxOffice.com reported.

Cruise's Ghost Protocol, meanwhile, continued to sell tickets at a nice clip, banking another $31.3 million.

With a domestic total of about $134.1 million, Ghost Protocol, just two wide-release weekends into its run, has already outgrossed the last M:I movie, Mission: Impossible III.

Overall, the weekend marked a solid end for 2011, and and solid start for 2012, with five films grossing at least $15 million each, up from three films last New Year's. Even New Year's Eve finally delivered, on its title as well as its all-star cast, with ticket sales double what they were Christmas weekend.

Among Steven Spielberg movies, Best Picture candidate War Horse once again showed more muscle than The Adventures of Tintin, at least domestically. Worldwide, it's Tintin that's the star.

Among awards-season hopefuls just getting started, the Iranian film A Separation ($66,598 at three screens, per BoxOffice.com) and Gary Oldman's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ($1.2 million at 57 screens) loomed large, while the Angelina Jolie-helmed Golden Globe nominee In the Land of Blood and Honey ($8,363 at two screens) struggled again.

Well, not everyone can be The Iron Lady. Or Streep.

Stay tuned Monday for four-day, holiday-weekend totals. For now, here's a rundown of the top movies, as compiled from the studios' Friday-Sunday domestic estimates and BoxOfficeMojo.com stats:

1. Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, $31.3 million
2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, $22.1 million
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, $18.3 million
4. War Horse, $16.9 million
5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, $16.3 million
6. We Bought a Zoo, $14.3 million
7. The Adventures of Tintin, $12 million
8. New Year's Eve, $6.7 million
9. The Darkest Hour, $4.3 million
10. The Descendants, $3.7 million

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/news/tom_cruise_no_meryl_streep_neithers/283434#ixzz1iFL7eLJe