British director Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes set a Christmas Day sales record at the box office in North America, taking a narrow lead over last weekend’s champ, Avatar, according to early estimates released on Saturday.

Sherlock Holmes in which Robert Downey Jr reinvents the ascetic Victorian sleuth as a dashing superhero, earned $24.9 million during its first day of release on Friday, distributor Warner Bros Pictures said.

The record for a Christmas Day opening was set last year when Marley and Me launched with $14.4 million.

Avatar earned $23.5 million on Friday, taking the eight-day total for director James Cameron’s costly 3-D extravaganza to $160.8 million, said 20th Century Fox.

The studios will release data for the Friday-Sunday period on Sunday.

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