Christmas Day Was Really 'Misérables' at the Movies

Because nothing says Christmas more than tuberculosis, revolution, and singing, the movie musical Les Misérables took the Christmas Day box office with a surprisingly high Tuesday total.

Because nothing says Christmas more than tuberculosis, revolution, and singing, the movie musical Les Misérables took the Christmas Day box office with a surprisingly high $18 million or so on Tuesday, according to Nikki Finke at Deadline. (The Hollywood Reporter put the film's "expected take" at $17.5 million.) Following the tuneful and thoroughly depressing story of a man who stole some bread Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, a movie about bloody revenge for the cruelty of slavery, which took in $15.5 million according to Finke. Both films did better than expected.

They also both set records: Les Miz surpassed other Christmas Day openers in number of early ticket sales, and Django made the most money of any R-rated December 25 debut. They were followed in Tuesday's box office race by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a movie that has already made a lot of money. Per Box Office Mojo, Peter Jackson's return to Middle Earth took the pre-Christmas weekend box office, despite "plummeting" from its two-week perch.

So it was a cheery year in movie theaters — oh, wait: