Holdovers liven New Year's B.O. party

'Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol'Thanks to solid holdover perfs from top players like "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," domestic B.O. stayed even with 2010's three-day New Year's frame -- but there could be a slight uptick, based on Sunday estimates. "Ghost Protocol" tallied a projected $40 million through Monday, while "Sherlock" grossed in three days an estimated $22.1 million. (Some studios have opted not to estimate grosses for the long weekend, which includes Monday's holiday.) Paramount's "Mission" four-peat, which rose 6% over last weekend's three-day holiday frame, has cumed as of Sunday $134.1 million domestically, pushing it past Warner Bros.' "Sherlock" sequel (at $132.1 million) to become the biggest-grossing Stateside holiday release. "Mission's" estimated cume through Monday stands at $142.9 million. Both "Mission" and "Sherlock" are performing well and likely will surpass last year's best-performing holiday pair, "Tron: Legacy" and "True Grit," which cumed just north of $170 million each. Though ringing in the new year usually isn't a big day at the plexes, Warner's "New Year's Eve" earned $6.7 million, more than twice as much as it did over last weekend's three-day Christmas frame. (That's also partly due to last weekend's Christmas Eve slowdown on Saturday.) In third place this weekend, Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" raked in an estimated $18.3 million from Friday to Sunday, repping a weekend-to-weekend surge of 45%. "Alvin" should cross the $100 million domestic mark by Monday. While there were no new wide releases entering the market this weekend, several specialty titles bowed limited. The Weinstein Co.'s "The Iron Lady" led the charge, posting a terrific per-screen average of $55,438 from four U.S. locations. Pic bowed Friday, as did Sony Pictures Classic's Iranian foreign-lingo Oscar submission, "A Separation," which averaged $22,199 at three playdates in NY and L.A. Meanwhile, Focus Features' "Pariah" debuted mid-week at four locations, but averaged from Friday to Sunday an estimated $12,424 per screen. Among the remaining top holdovers, Disney-DreamWorks' "War Horse," with $16.9 million in three days, edged out a narrow victory over Sony's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," which posted through Sunday an estimated $16.3 million. Sony is predicting that "Tattoo" will add another $5.2 million on Monday, which would put the pic's Stateside cume at $62.3 million. In total, "War Horse" has grossed nearly $43 million domestically. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com