LOS ANGELES — It was a great Christmas for the Paramount Pictures musical "Dreamgirls."

The film, starring Eddie Murphy and Beyonce Knowles, earned $8.7 million on Christmas Day according to studio estimates as it expanded from three locations to 852 theaters nationwide.

That was good enough to push it into the top-10 grossing films for the four-day holiday weekend, knocking the religious-themed "The Nativity Story" to 11th place.

The film, which also stars Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson, also has dreams of Oscar.

"Dreamgirls is an Oscar contender if ever there was one," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

1. "Night at the Museum," $42.2 million.

2. "The Pursuit of Happyness," $23.1 million.

3. "Rocky Balboa," $17 million.

4. "The Good Shepherd," $13.9 million.

5. "Charlotte's Web," $9.5 million.

6. "Eragon," $9.3 million.

7. "Dreamgirls," $8.9 million.

8. "We Are Marshall," $8.6 million.

9. "The Holiday," $7 million.

10. "Happy Feet," $6.6 million