The Box-Office Top Five

#1 "2012" ($65 million)
#2 "A Christmas Carol" ($22.3 million)
#3 "The Men Who Stare at Goats" ($6.2 million)
#4 "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" ($6.1 million)
#5 "Michael Jackson's This Is It" ($5.1 million)

World-ending scenarios are certainly cause for concern in reality, but moviegoers couldn't resist dabbling in doomsday this weekend with the release of Sony's "2012." Director Roland Emmerich, already known for disaster epics such as "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow," set the box office on fire once again with a $65 million weekend debut domestically and an additional $160 million overseas, resulting in a $225 million worldwide intake.

The success of "2012" marks a major step forward for director Emmerich, whose last film, "10,000 B.C.," opened softly due to bad word of mouth from critics and audiences alike. Critics are still mixed on Emmerich's storytelling merits in "2012," but the director undeniably delivered a lucrative feature this time around for Sony. Indeed, "2012" is the studio's eighth first-place-finishing film of the year, joining an elite club that includes "Zombieland" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."

The sheer force of "2012" overcame other box-office contenders, including last week's winner, "A Christmas Carol." The 3-D motion-capture flick, which stars Jim Carrey as the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge and a number of other characters, managed a second-place finish of $22.3 million, bringing the film's domestic total to $63.3 million. While that number might be far from the movie's reported $180 million budget, the impending holiday season could keep "A Christmas Carol" in spirit long enough to turn a profit or at least break even.

Beyond the big-budget spectacles, some of the weekend's smaller fish performed quite admirably. "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" landed in fourth place with $6.1 million, which is rather impressive given the movie's presence in a mere 174 theaters. "Pirate Radio," which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and a slew of British talent, just barely missed the top ten with $2.9 million over 882 theaters. Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," meanwhile, opened to $260,000 in only four theaters, yielding the weekend's highest per-theater average at $65,000 a screen.

Upcoming Releases

Next weekend sees the return of vampires, werewolves and teenage romance in Summit's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," which is sure to knock "2012" out of the box office's first-place throne — barring a world-ending catastrophe, of course.

Check out everything we've got on "2012," "A Christmas Carol" and "Michael Jackson's This Is It"

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.