‘Alice’ Continues Journey In Theater ‘Wonderland’

Written by Wayne Hall on March 15, 2010 – 12:00 pm -

According to Variety, Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland retained the top spot in theaters this past weekend. However, while most movie critics expected that, what they didn’t expect was that the movie would drop just 46.6 percent in its second session, grossing $62 million and ending its tenth day with $208.5 million.

For a motion picture that opened last week over $100 million, it’s the third-smallest second- weekend drop ever. While Alice didn’t beat out the top two — Shrek 2 dropped 33 percent and Spider-Man dropped 37 percent, it still came in ahead of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which fell 47.7 percent.

The sheer-staying power of the $200 million fantasy picture is impressive. The film posted strong weekday numbers and has the tenth-biggest ten-day total of all-time. It has an decent shot at reaching $300 million if it can weather the one-two punch of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and losing its 3D and IMAX screens to How to Train Your Dragon over the next two respective weekends.

There have been only seven films released outside of the summer to reach $300 million. Two of them are Avatar and Titanic, with three of them Lord of the Rings pictures (the other two are The Passion of the Christ and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), so Alice In Wonderland could find itself in some very special company. One can imagine that numbers like this will not dissuade Burton from doing more re-imagings of whatever famous property next gets greenlit.

As mentioned in a previous article, the romantic drama Remember Me featuring Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame was also released. It was considered by many as a test of the actor’s draw as a movie star. Of course, if Summit was trying to prop up the numbers by attaching the Twilight Saga: Eclipse trailer to prints of Remember Me, it might have helped if they had NOT released the trailer online the day before the opening. So, while some may decry the ‘mere’ $8.3 million, a movie like this wouldn’t have made $1.75 if not for Pattinson’ drawing power.

Besides, as word leaked out about what is called the film’s “extended-middle finger of an ending,” even some of Pattinson’s die-hard fans apparently decided to stay away. Speaking of females, the gender split was 84/16 on this one. What this means is, if he can open Remember Me to $8.3 million all by himself, Pattinson may just be a “real” movie star.

Among the holdovers, Shutter Island crossed the $100 million mark, dropping 38 percent during weekend four and ending the weekend with a total of $108 million. It now is Martin Scorsese‘s second-highest domestic grosser of all time.

And what movie update would be complete without the latest Avatar report? Following the loss of its IMAX and 3D screens last weekend, the James Cameron picture has actually seen an uptick on the 2D screens over the last week. Sure enough, it dropped only 18 percent this weekend (after a 43 percent drop last weekend) despite losing another 445 screens to end its thirteenth session with $730 million.

There can be no doubt that the movie lost hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide by being forced to abdicate its IMAX and 3D screens prematurely. There has been talk of a 3D/IMAX release this fall after the summer films have died down, possibly with extra footage tossed in. Weekends like this make that seem like a pretty smart move.

Related posts:

  1. ‘Alice’ Off To ‘Wonderful’ Start In Theaters
  2. First Look At Burtons Alice In Wonderland
  3. Avatar Continues To Bust Box Office Records
  4. Christmas Weekend Shatters Theater Box Office Records
  5. JOIN DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND

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