I Am Legend, the post-apocalyptic Will Smith film, has beat out The Return of the King to score the best North American December opening of all time, according to reports in Variety and elsewhere.

Legend took in $76.5 million over three days from 3,606 theaters. RotK (2003) had held the old record with $72.6 million.

Bizarrely enough, Variety links the boom for Legend with a startling and unexpectedly big weekend for the live-action reenvisioning of Alvin and the Chipmunks with Jason Lee corralling the pint-sized pop-star furballs. It's hard to imagine two films more unlike in terms of tone or craft, but together they apparently created a "perfect storm" that rebooted a sluggish movie season. Hopefully this doesn't mean that there will be a franchise cross-over film between the two.

(Speaking of which, props to Warner Brothers for slipping in a billboard for a Batman/Superman movie in the abandoned 2010 Times Square, complete with the obvious logo – the Superman Returns S shield superimposed over the Batman Begins bat shield. Great thought, but it's not gonna happen: I enjoyed Superman Returns well enough, but it's a no-brainer that Christian Bale would blow Brandon Routh right off the screen.)