Weekend Box Office (01/01/12): Strong holdovers close out 2011 movie year.

As is often the case, the last weekend of the year is basically a repeat of last weekend, both in general ranking and numbers, as the holiday weekend tends to keep drops low, if often absent.  Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol led the pack of major Christmas and holiday releases that actually went up from last weekend.  The Brad Bird spy thriller earned $31 million over Fri-Sun, with an eye towards a likely $40 million four-day holiday weekend.  At the end of its third weekend, the first of which was IMAX-exclusive, the crowd-pleasing Tom Cruise vehicle will have grossed $140 million by Monday, which means it has already outgrossed the $134 million-grossing Mission: Impossible III.  Overseas, the sequel is doing even bigger business, with a worldwide total of $324 million as we close out 2011.  The $215 million gross of John Woo's Mission: Impossible II is likely out of reach, but surpassing the $181 million gross from Brian DePalma's Mission: Impossible is not only possible but plausible.  Worldwide, the film is shaping up to be $600 million earner, the respective totals, speculative as they may be now, would make this film Tom Cruise's third-biggest domestic grosser and his biggest worldwide earner ever.  MI4 already ranks ninth on both lists.

Confirmed by Warner Bros: Mad Men's Jared Harris cast as Professor Moriarty in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes 2.

This was reported at The Latino Review a few days ago, but I was hoping to hear official word before commenting. Apparently Warner Bros. just confirmed it, so I can now report it as likely fact. Anyway, The role of Professor Moriarty has been cast in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes 2. It's not anyone off the 'dream list' (Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Daniel Day Lewis), nor was it either of my personal preferences (John Hurt or Chiwetel Ejiofor). The arch-villain role instead went to character actor Jared Harris

Harris is best known for his supporting role in seasons 3 and 4 of Mad Men. He also had a supporting role in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (easily the best entry in the B-movie franchise) and a reoccurring role on Fringe. Oddly enough (...useless trivia alert...), he also appeared in the fine straight-to-DVD horror picture From Within, which starred Elizabeth Rice, who reoccurs as Roger Sterling's daughter on Mad Men.

There isn't much to say about this one. Although it warms the heart to see that Guy Ritchie went with a somewhat unknown actor rather than cast whatever star would say 'yes'. I enjoyed the first Sherlock Holmes, finding it to be a messy and flawed, but genuinely engaging character-study/detective film. There is plenty of room for improvement, this is a step in the right direction.

Scott Mendelson