Despite some stiff competition, James Cameron's Avatar has emerged triumphant during a successful Christmas weekend at the US box office.

Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Skqueaquel tussled for the top spot with Avatar taking the weekend with an impressive $75 million, just 2.6% down from its launch - and bringing its US total to more than $212 million.

Sherlock won Friday and ended up with $65.3 million for the weekend. That put it past the Chipmunks follow-up which, scored $50 million during the three days alone, but actually nabbed $77 million since it launched on Wednesday.

Nancy Meyers' latest, It's Complicated, also enjoyed a healthy start, earning $22.1 million.

Up In The Air, meanwhile, couldn't quite get off the ground as it expanded wider, though it still managed to addd $11.7 million to a running total of $24.5 million. The same could be said for Nine, and Rob Marshall's latest musical could only muster $5.5 million.

The result has been the most successful Christmas box office ever, with an estimated $280 million - helped by the fact that three big films opened on Christmas Day itself.