On Thursday, the canine comedy “Marley & Me” set a new record for Christmas Day box office, earning an estimated $15 million on its first day of release.

When final numbers are tallied, Brad Pitt’s reverse-aging fable “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is also expected to break the record, which was held by 2001’s “Ali” at $10.2 million dollars. Adam Sandler’s comic fantasy “Bedtime Stories” could come close to that number.

Here in St. Louis, an astonishing nine movies opened on Christmas Day, including several potential Oscar contenders.

“Marley & Me” is not one of those. The warm-and-fuzzy flick stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as newlyweds who adopt an unruly yellow labrador puppy. In a highly unscientific poll of the people with whom I ate Christmas dinner, “Marley & Me” was rated as the must-see movie.

(Yes, even in my own family, puppies trump art.)