Bangalore: ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ emerged the winner at the box-office, grossing $38.3 million this weekend.

‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ or ‘M:I:4’ was the top-grossing movie at the box-office this weekend, as reported by Reuters. It garnered $38.3 million at the box-office over the weekend. ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ was steady at the 2^nd spot, earning $26.5 million, while ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked’ was on the 3^rd position with $21 million.

M:I:4 exhibits all qualities of a blockbuster and is currently reigning the charts. The news, however, is not good for majority of the flicks of 2011. Hollywood movies were unable to make their mark at the box-office last year, registering a significant dip in their earnings, when compared to that of 2010. Apart from a handful of good movies, most of them have been rather disappointing at the theatres. One cannot call these to be average earners but the earnings have definitely been lesser than in 2010.

M:I:4’s release date in India was post-poned in order to avoid competition from Don-2, which released on 23^rd December, 2011. This was a wise decision taken by the concerned people else Don-2 would have eaten the box-office share of M:I:4. M:I:4 has fared well at the Indian theatres too, garnering 26 crores in its opening weekend.

According to Economic Times, there has been a 4.2 percent drop in box-office earnings this year, when compared to that of 2010.  According to Paul Dergarabedian, an Analyst at Hollywood.com said, "Last week, we were really pretty gloom and doom, but this final push at the end of the year was stronger than expected. It's a good way to head into 2012, with at least a little bit of momentum at the box office.''

Hollywood is yearning for a better performance from movies this year because the bar has been raised due to super-duper hits like ‘Avatar,’ released in 2009. This year is awaiting quite an extensive list of Hollywood flicks, like – ‘The Amazing Spiderman’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Men In Black 3’, ‘Skyfall’, ‘Dark Shadows’, ‘Prometheus’, ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ and new installments of ‘Ice Age’ and ‘Madagascar.’

Though movies have not been able to shine last year, this year is all set to welcome the above list of high-profile movies. Hollywood is in dire need to outperform at this year’s box-office because it needs to prove itself as a major money-maker.