Meet the Fockers, the hilarious sequel to Meet the Parents, debuted at the top of the North American box office this holiday weekend.

The film, starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, earned $44.7 million over the weekend according to box office estimates. On Saturday, it set a record for the highest box office take on a Christmas Day with $19.1 million, breaking last year?s record set by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

But although the top movie set a Christmas record, overall, ticket sales were down from last year.

Fat Albert, the big screen adaptation of the old Bill Cosby cartoon, brought in $12.7 to debut at number 2.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events fell to number 3 after debuting atop the chart last week. The movie, starring Jim Carrey, earned just $12.5 million.

The Aviator, with Leonardo Dicaprio, was in fourth with $9.4 million, though it is still in limited release.

Ocean?s Twelve plunged to number 5 with receipts totaling $8.6 million, probably not enough to pay the salary for even one of the A-list stars in the movie.

Darkness debuts in 6, The Polar Express drops to 7, Spanglish disappointingly falls to 8 in just its second week, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was 9, and The Phantom of the Opera, in limited release, debuts in tenth.


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