Once again the box office failed to live up to expectations this weekend, leading to what could be one of the worst Decembers in some time.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opened to only about two-thirds of the original’s opening weekend two years ago.  It barely broke the $40 million dollar mark compared to the original bringing in $62.3 million.  While it isn’t the worst opening in history, but it is sure to have not thrilled Warner Brothers executives.

The other sequel to see a wide release this weekend was Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, and it also had the worst opening for the series yet.  It came in with $23.5 million, well below the second film’s $48.9 million or the original’s $44.3 million.  The first two films brought in over $200 million each domestically, but it looks highly unlikely the third will follow that success, and with a $75 million dollar budget, there are sure to be some studio executives at 20th Century Fox sweating at the moment.

Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol only opened up in 425 locations this weekend, and it still came in third place with $13 million.  It goes wide next weekend with an additional 3,400 screens, so expect it to do well.

Coming in fourth was New Year’s Eve with a slip of 43 percent, down to $7.4 million.  The percentage wasn’t horrible, so this film may have a little life in it, but not a ton.

Rounding out the top five was The Sitter with a 55 percent hit to its total bringing in a meager $4.4 million. As I said last week, I just don’t think the world is ready for Jonah Hill as the lead in a comedy.

Next weekend sees the release of The Adventures of Tin Tin which will probably do so-so domestically as he is not a widely known character, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

As weekends go, this one definitely did not set the box office ablaze, and when the the final numbers come in, it may rate as the worst since 2008.  All told, the top 12 films brought in an anemic $69.7 million.

First up was the new ensemble romantic comedy New Year’s Eve that took the top spot at the box office with a paltry $13.7 million, a whopping 75% less than the similarly themed Valentine’s Day from last February.  This was well below even the lowest expectations for the film, and perhaps it will sustain itself through the holiday it’s named for, but this opening certainly isn’t going to leave to many executives happy this morning.

Coming in second was the Jonah Hill comedy The Sitter with $10 million.  This is the first comedy with Hill in the lead, and it’s pretty obvious that the film going audience wasn’t that thrilled with the concept.  I’d say color me surprised, but I’m not.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 fell to third this week with $7.9 million, bringing its domestic take to $259.5 million off of a $110 million budget. Worldwide it has broken $633.5 million. It may be annoying to see one book broken into two parts, but between this and the final two Harry Potter films, it seems that the concept sadly works.

Coming in fourth was The Muppets with just a breath of $7 million which brings its domestic total to $65.8 million. With a $45 million dollar budget this film has yet to break even and looks unlikely to do so, sadly.

Rounding out the top five was Arthur Christmas with $6.6 million.

Due next week is Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and a limited release of Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

21 Jump Street was always an idiotic concept for a TV show, but the series lingers on people’s memories because it ended up launching the career of some unknown actor named Johnny Depp.

Comedic actor Jonah Hill picked up the rights to the television series and while it wasn’t clear if he was going serious with the project or not, and … no, he isn’t.  Although Depp will have a cameo somewhere in the film, this looks like it will be nothing but being close to a parody fo the original TV series, which few people remember, and it will just turn into another vehicle for Hill.

You can see the red band trailer below (meaning it isn’t safe for work) and judge for yourself, but this looks just about as unentertaining as possible.