10 Biggest Christmas Blockbusters of All Time

PORTLAND, Ore. (TheStreet) -- During a holiday season of Thanksgiving night store openings and Christmas retail and restaurant encroachment, movie theaters continue to get a pass from the merry masses.

Many of the same folks who hated seeing Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) extend Black Friday to just after Thanksgiving dinner and cursed McDonald's (MCD) for telling franchisees to consider opening on Christmas Day have no problem with Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) , AMC Theaters, Carmike Cinemas (CKEC) or Cinemark Theaters (CNK) calling in employees, throwing open the doors and debuting movies. This year's lineup is particularly robust, with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, the Seth Rogen/Barbara Streisand comedy Guilt Trip, Judd Apatow's This Is 40 and the musical Les Miserables all being released on or just before Christmas.

Since the turn of the millennium, the cinematic holiday season has transformed from a quiet little collection of family films and Oscar contenders to blockbuster territory. According to BoxOfficeMojo, the movie industry's holiday season -- which starts on first Friday in November and ends on New Year's week or weekend -- first passed the $2 billion mark in 2000. That season, the Jim Carrey live-action version of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas pulled in $260 million on its own.

Disney's (DIS) Toy Story franchise and James Cameron's Titanic helped nudge the industry in this direction during the '90s, but The Grinch increased Hollywood's holiday output from 63 films in 2000 to 107 by 2007. The number of films released has since plummeted and the annual holiday take has decreased in five of the past seven years, including a 39% downturn so far this season.