As expected, the Tim Burton fantasy Alice in Wonderland commanded the North American box office. What wasn’t expected was how much it would command it by.
Despite the fact that the Academy Awards are Sunday night, all attention and eyes were on the mega-budget 3D Disney film which opened on 3,728 screens (180 of them IMAX) for a massive $116.3 million estimated box office take. Reviews were decidedly mixed, but that mattered not as the heavily-hyped take on Lewis Carroll’s classic characters tickled the fancy of moviegoers who had were ready for something new, colorful and big.
The monstrous bow set records for a March opening (beating 300’s $70.2 million opening from three years ago), for director Burton and for a film presented in the 3D format. And while it did beat Avatar’s opening weekend by a wide margin, only time will tell what type of legs this film will have. Something tells me that while being a megahit; Alice’s exploits in Wonderland (Underland?) will not reach the stratospheric highs James Cameron’s Na’vi epic has.
Speaking of the James Cameron smash, the Oscar-nominated 3D film lost many a venue to Alice this weekend and saw its gross drop by 44% (its biggest drop to date) to roughly $7.7 million, bringing its total to the $720 million mark. The film might see an uptick in sales should it take home Best Picture at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony.
In second place was the new crime drama from Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, the ensemble drama Brooklyn’s Finest with a moderate gross of $13.5 million from 1,936 screens. The R-rated urban drama features Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and the big screen return of Wesley Snipes. Reviews were as mixed as the film’s box office take, with most viewers opting for the colorful 3D exploits of Alice in Wonderland instead of the violent 2D adventures set in the New York City Borough.
In the wake of the ‘Alice Express,’ many of the holdovers (that are not Oscar nominees) suffered moderate-to-sizeable drops. Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island held well with a $13.3 million gross, down 41% from last weekend to bring its new total to $96 million. The Bruce Willis comedy Cop Out dropped by half from its opening weekend to $9.1 million and a ten-day estimated take of $32.3 million. The well-reviewed The Crazies got hit even harder, dropping 56% to $7 million and a ten-day take of $27.4 million. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief suffered a 47% drop to $5.1 million for a new total of $78 million. Valentine’s Day continued its fast fade with a 53% drop to $4.2 million and a new take of $106.4 million, while Dear John added $2.9 million to its coffers for a new total of approximately $77 million to date.
Oddly enough, the holdover that dropped the least from last weekend was, you guessed it, The Tooth Fairy. Dropping off only 19%, the durable family comedy hauled another $1.8 million for a new total of $56.2 million to date.
With the Oscar ceremony happening tonight, the nominated films still in theaters saw some nice spikes in attendance. Crazy Heart serenaded $3.3 million, up 36% from last weekend for a new gross of $29.5 million to date. The Blind Side went up 3% to $1.27 million to help the film break the $250 million mark. Indies An Education and A Single Man also saw increases of 30-50%, and despite being on home video for the past couple of months, The Hurt Locker returned to 274 theaters to add $440,000 to its total, which now stands at $14.7 million.
Next weekend, the action film The Green Zone, the comedies She’s Out of My League and Our Family Wedding and the Robert Pattinson romance film Remember Me all debut. Unless it suffers a drop of 70-80% (which I seriously doubt), watch for Alice to stay right where she is now: in the number one spot.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
