Featuring Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and also as the three holiday ghosts that show Scrooge the error of his miserly ways, A Christmas Carol came in on the low end of Disney's expectations for opening weekend.

On the other end of the spectrum, Lionsgate's acclaimed drama Precious had a spectacular start, pulling in US$1.8 million in just 18 theatres, averaging US$100,000 a cinema. That compares with an US$8,418 average for A Christmas Carol in 3,683 theatres.

Precious had a record average for films opening in 10 or more theatres. Others that have averaged US$100,000 or more typically debut in only a few cinemas.

The weekend brought a rush of other new movies, led by George Clooney's comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats, which finished at number three with US$13.3 million. The Overture Films release is a satiric look at US military efforts to create 'warrior monks' who can predict the future or walk through walls.

Debuting in fourth place with US$12.5 million was Universal's The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich as a psychologist studying alien abductions in Alaska.

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden's sci-fi tale The Box opened at number six with US$7.9 million. The Warner Bros thriller centres on a couple given a mysterious box that can provide them US$1 million, but at the cost of a stranger's life.