The Christmas Box Office had a bit of a surprise when Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson’s dog-love movie Marley & Me earned an estimated $37 million from 3,480 theaters for an average of $10,632 per location. That includes setting a Christmas Day record at $14.7 million, beating Will Smith’s Ali ($10.2 million).

(Although, to be fair, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Adam Sandler’s family flick Bedtime Stories also broke the Ali record with $12 and $10.5 million respectively.)

What does this mean for dearest Jennifer?

Well, on the surface level, she beat her ex-lover Brad Pitt at the Christmas Box office with a sappy, family-friendly movie about loving a dog. And that’s got to feel good, especially since she did her best in the media to slag Angelina Jolie, leaving her real revenge for X-mas weekend, when Pitt came in behind Sandler with a Curiously lack-luster $27 mil.

Bedtime Stories came in second with around $28 million, but who cares.

The best thing for Jennifer Aniston? She finally proved that she can open a movie, even if feeding melodrama to families during the holidays is like shooting fish in a barrel. Assuming Marley doesn’t take a history-worthy nose dive, it looks like Aniston might not have to stoop to doing a Friends movie to save her from bankruptcy. Or at least irrelevancy.