Opening presence on Christmas Day

Unless the movie in question is a prestige project strategically timed for award season or has an obvious holiday peg, Christmas Day can be a tricky opening date. Sometimes it works, as the top films below indicate, other times -- well, “The Postman” delivered only $1.6 million on its opening Thursday, Christmas Day 1997, on its way to an anemic first weekend of $5.3 million and a domestic total of $17.6 million.

Title (year/day of week): Domestic total (In millions)

Catch Me If You Can (‘02/Wednesday): $164.6

Cheaper by the Dozen (‘03/Thursday): 138.6

Patch Adams (‘98/Friday): 135.0

Cold Mountain (‘03/Thursday): 95.6

Michael (‘96/Wednesday): 95.3

Stepmom (‘98/Friday): 91.1

The Talented Mr. Ripley (‘99/Saturday): 81.3

The Prince of Tides (‘91/Wednesday): 74.8

Galaxy Quest (‘99/Saturday): 71.6

Grumpy Old Men (‘93/Saturday): 70.2

Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.

Los Angeles Times