Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland grossed an impressive $116.101 million, the biggest opening ever for Burton (crushing the $68.533M opening of 2001’s “Planet of the Apes”) and the best-ever opening debut for a 3D film (eclipsing the $77.025M for Avatar). The film opened on Friday to $40.805M, improved 8.3% to 44.209M on Saturday and dropped 29.7% on Sunday to $31.087M. That translates to a per theater average of $31,143.
The 3-day tally is enough to put it ahead of Valentine’s Day ($106.42M) as the highest-grossing film of 2010.
‘Alice’ was helped significantly by 3D and IMAX, which accounted for about 70%, or over $80M of its opening weekend, topping the previous $55M record set by Avatar. The film grossed an estimated record $11.9M (included in the $80M tally) from just 188 IMAX venues (an incredible $63,197 per site). The previous best for IMAX was Avatar‘s $9.5M from 178 sites. Box Office Mojo estimates that combined, the 3D and IMAX ticket premiums over normal prices added about $22M to Alice‘s gross.
Worldwide receipts were also strong, $100.5M from 6,455 sites in 40 territories (for a per-screen average of $15,569) putting its opening weekend worldwide cume at $216.601 million. Head on over the jump for more analysis and the weekend chart.
The only other new release this weekend was the Antoine Fuqua-directed R-rated action film Brooklyn’s Finest which debuted in second place with a respectable $13.35M from 1,936 theaters (Fri: $4.73M; Sat: $5.289M; Sun: $3.331M). Rounding out the top five, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island ($95.75M cume) dropped to third place after two-straight first place showings with $13.225M, while Cop Out dropped two spots to fourth place ($9.289M / $32.505M cume) and Avatar dropped one spot, but stayed in the top five, in its 12th weekend with $8.118M ($720.607M domestic cume).
Weekend Chart for March 5 – March 7, 2010:
| MOVIE TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | % CHANGE | THEATERS | CHANGE | TOTAL GROSS | |
| 1 | Alice in Wonderland | $116,101,023 | NEW | 3,728 | – | $116,101,023 |
| 2 | Brooklyn’s Finest | $13,350,299 | NEW | 1,936 | – | $13,350,299 |
| 3 | Shutter Island | $13,225,411 | -41.6% | 3,178 | +175 | $95,750,005 |
| 4 | Cop out | $9,289,311 | -49.0% | 3,150 | – | $32,504,610 |
| 5 | Avatar | $8,118,102 | -40.5% | 2,163 | -293 | $720,607,444 |
| 6 | The Crazies | $7,078,851 | -55.9% |
2,479 | +3 | $27,472,164 |
| 7 | ‘Percy Jackson’ | $5,124,623 | -46.5% |
2,994 | -308 | $78,057,749 |
| 8 | Valentine’s Day | $4,154,110 | -54.2% |
3,040 | -538 | $106,303,870 |
| 9 | Crazy Heart | $3,312,591 | +34.5% |
1,274 | +126 | $29,532,002 |
| 10 | Dear John | $2,782,079 | -42.1% |
2,496 | -510 | $76,626,086 |
Sources: Box Office Mojo and THR (1), (2)
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