LOS ANGELES — Millions of Americans went shopping for comedy this weekend, giving the star-studded “Meet the Fockers” the record for the best single Christmas Day box office take.

The sequel, reuniting Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro and adding Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as Stiller’s parents, earned $44.7 million over the holiday weekend according to studio estimates.

While not a weekend record, the film did set a record for Christmas Day, earning $19.1 million. The previous record was set last year when “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” earned $14 million on Christmas Day.

Still, the performance of “Meet the Fockers” was impressive when measured against the overall weekend box office, which was down 26.5 percent from last year.

“Meet the Fockers” knocked last week’s top film — “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” — to third place, with $12.5 million. Second place was taken by the live-action version of “Fat Albert,” which debuted Saturday with a two-day total of $12.7 million, according to studio estimates.

1. “Meet the Fockers,” $44.7 million

2. “Fat Albert,” 12.7 million.

3. “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” $12.5 million

4. “The Aviator,” $9.4 million.

5. “Ocean’s Twelve,” $8.6 million.

6. “Darkness,” $6.4 million.

7. “The Polar Express,” $6.3 million.

8. “Spanglish,” $5 million

9. “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” $4.8 million.

10. “Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera,” $4.2 million.