WILL SMITH'S 'I AM LEGEND' MAKES BOX OFFICE HISTORY AS BIGGEST DECEMBER OPENING EVER.

For the last man on Earth, Will Smith sure has a lot of friends. The Warner Bros. tale I Am Legend, starring Smith as a plague survivor who may be the last living human, debuted with $76.5 million, the biggest December opening ever and a personal best for one of Hollywood's top box-office champs, according to studio estimates Sunday. "It's no wonder Will Smith feels so lonely. Everyone else on Earth is in the movie theater," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. The 20th Century Fox family flick Alvin and the Chipmunks, starring Jason Lee in a big-screen take on the cartoon critters, opened a strong No. 2 with $45 million. The two films combined to give Hollywood a year-end surge after a drowsy fall season.

I Am Legend smashed Smith's personal debut record, easily exceeding the $52.1 million opening weekends of I, Robot and Men in Black II, his previous bests. I Am Legend outdid the $72.6 million premiere of 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the previous best December opening.

Based on the Richard Matheson novel filmed twice before as Vincent Price's The Last Man on Earth and Charlton Heston's The Omega Man, I Am Legend casts Smith as a scientist trying to find a cure and fighting off the vestiges of humanity, people transformed by the plague into vampire-like creatures.

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