Tis the season for popcorn (and chipmunks, and a viral apocalypse, and pregnant teens)…and "Jingle Bells" may have never sounded so sweet to Hollywood, unless you had slathered it in sunscreen and called it Memorial Day weekend.

2007 turned out to be one for the books, and not just because of what seemed like an inordinate amount of crummy weekends at the box office and the proliferation of threequels.

Thanks to Will Smith, Nicolas Cage and "Alvin, Simon, Theodore," studios unwrapped about $168.7 million over the post-holiday weekend, 18 percent more than they found under the tree in 2006.

In turn, Hollywood will finish the year with record returns of about $9.7 billion, a nearly five percent gain from last year, according to estimates compiled by box office tracker Exhibitor Relations. The previous high was $9.45 billion in 2004.

Of course, tickets are more expensive than ever and 2002 still holds the record for most tickets sold, 1.6 billion. But, a little fool's gold is still better than a lump of coal, right?

Cage can attest to that. National Treasure: Book of Secrets spent another weekend at number one, banking $35.6 million between Friday and Sunday—plus another $13.7 million on Christmas Day—to bring its two-week total to $124 million. The adventure flick also had the third-biggest Xmas showing ever, behind only Meet the Fockers ($19.5 million) and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($14 million).

Alvin and the Chipmunks and I Am Legend accounted for another $30 million and $27.5 million in receipts, respectively, leaving Smith's sci-fi tour de force just a few days shy of the $200 million mark.

A resurgent Charlie Wilson's War remained in fourth place with $11.8 million, up 21.9 percent from last week, despite mixed reviews. But critics be darned—the film was nominated for five Golden Globes and perhaps people want to see for themselves what a lighthearted dramatization about what amounted to the U.S. funding of the Taliban looks like.

Rounding out the top five with a vengeance was Juno, which experienced no growing pains by expanding from 304 theaters into 998. Instead, the indie comedy collected another $10.3 million and, using nothing but wryness and charm, bested all three major-studio films enjoying their first weekend in wide release.

Alien Vs. Predator : Requiem had the third-biggest Dec. 25 take of all time, and was nipping at Juno's heels with $10.1 million, but its six-day total of $26.9 million couldn't match predecessor Alien Vs. Predator's $38.3 million summer opening in 2004.

Perhaps upping the gore factor and stamping an R rating on the sequel to please fans of the original action flicks upon which this new franchise is based wasn't the way onto Santa's "good" list this season.

Families that had already done the chipmunk thing forked over $9.2 million to see The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, a respectable seventh-place showing for the fantastical heartwarmer, depsite it's having a largely unknown British cast (no offense, Ben Chaplin) and a title that sounds like a James Cameron documentary.

Falling out of the top 10, probably for good, were The Golden Compass, which earned $4.4 million to bring its astoundingly underwhelming domestic total to $58.9 million, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which seemingly never stood a chance after taking in only $4.1 million last week. Another $3.7 million did not do much for the Judd Apatow-produced mock-biopic.

The Great Debaters, Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey's pet project about a debate team from a historically black Texas college that took on some of the country's biggest-name schools during the rights-oppressing Depression era, just missed the top 10 with a $6.3 million debut in 1,171 theaters.

And as the popcorn is chewed and the soda slurped, select audiences are getting to see more of what all this awards season fuss is about.

Oscar hopeful There Will Be Blood blew away the per-theater competition, taking in $186,000 on only two screens, one in New York and the other in Los Angeles, the year's best per-location average. 

The Bucket List, the Morgan Freeman-Jack Nicholson buddy comedy-mortality fable that opened Dec. 25, also did killer small-number business in its first full weekend, $323,000 in 16 theaters for a second-best $20,187-per-screen average.

Atonement, which leads the Golden Globes field with seven nominations, earned $3.1 million on 310 screens—put into context by knowing that Walk Hard earned $3.7 million in 2,650 theaters.

Spain's official selection for Academy Award consideration, the cerebral horror film The Orphanage, earned $230,000 on 19 screens, while France's pick, the animated Persepolis, sold $91,100 in tickets in seven theaters.

Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations (final figures to be released later this week):

1. National Treasure: Book of Secrets, $35.6 million
2. Alvin and the Chipmunks, $30 million
3. I Am Legend, $27.5 million
4. Charlie Wilson's War, $11.8 million
5. Juno, $10.3 million
6. Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, $10.1 million
7. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, $9.2 million
8. P.S. I Love You, $9.1 million
9. Sweeney Todd, $8 million
10. Enchanted, $6.5 million