Michael Bay’s Name Pushed Paramount To Settle Injured … 
Several More New Series In Recasting Mode; Returning Ones … 
‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Moving To March 2013 To … 
Directors Fortnight Says It Must “Police … 
‘Chronicle’ Helmer Josh Trank Takes On … 
Big Media Chiefs Tell Cable Operators To Speed Up ‘TV … 
Will ‘Pan Am’ Take Flight With Amazon? 
EMMYS: Showtime Launches Free Weekend Promotion Targeting … 
TOLDJA! ICM Management Buyout Complete 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’, … 
An Olympian Effort: NBCUni Plans 5,535 Hours Of Coverage … 
Netflix Exec Denies It’s Responsible For Nickelodeon … 
DESPERATE: HuffPo & Oprah Team Up Now 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Great Gatsby’ 
How Did Women Pilot Writers Fare For 2012? 
Disney Quits Snow White Film ‘Order Of The … 
Cannes Planning Surprise Screening Of Non-Fest Films; … 
Investors Unfriend Facebook As SEC Investigates IPO … 
Cash Windfalls For WME Agents, Assistants 
A&E IndieFilms Sets ‘Happy Valley,’ … 
Hot Cannes Property: Natalie Portman, Lynne Ramsay Team On … 
SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Disney’s Alice In Wonderland is a monster hit 
despite blowing past its budget and bringing back mediocre reviews. It clearly becomes the biggest 3D bow ever and the best March release ever and the highest grossing movie of 2010 with $41 million on Friday and $44.3 million on Saturday. Remember, those higher priced 3D tickets make all the difference. Even so, the Tim Burton-directed, Johnny Depp-starring fantasy flick had the biggest 3D release of all time. Of its 3,728 North American locations this weekend, its total domestic 3D count is 2,063, plus 180 Imax 3D engagements. That helped the pic post a $116.3M opening weekend with numbers blowing away Avatar‘s first Fri-Sat-Sun. IMAX on Friday had the biggest day in their history with $4.3M for Alice. The IMAX weekend take of $11+M also is a record for the big screen company. Overseas, Alice shot to #1 almost everywhere after opening day and date in 40 territories beginning Wednesday. Disney narrowly avoided a boycott overseas when UK and other exhibitors were angered by the studio’s plans to shorten the theatrical-to-DVD window from 16 weeks to just 12 weeks. (UK Exhibitors End Boycott Of Disney’s Alice)
As for foreign grosses, Alice debuted to $94 million in 40+ markets representing only 60% of the international marketplace. That means the worldwide box office was $210.3M. That’s only 2nd to Avatar‘s $242M global bow, but Wonderland‘s domestic total blew past Avatar‘s.
This would be a huge triumph for Walt Disney Studios except this also is one of those awkward Hollywood situations where a studio cleans house of top executives only to have the new management preside over a hit courtesy of their predecessors. In this case, Rich Ross et al will benefit from what Dick Cook and Oren Aviv hath wrought. Everyone knows that Dick had a very special relationship with both Tim and Johnny. But what’s really amusing is the way that one of Alice‘s producers, Joe Roth, is trying to use the film to claw his way back into Hollywood. I see the former Disney and Fox production chief who failed miserably with his Revolution Studios is up to his old trick of manipulating the media, this time with a tale of how he put together Wonderland singlehandedly. (Oh, puh-leeze.) “Don’t you think 4 years in the penalty box is long enough?” a Roth pal emailed me today. Not when considering how arrogantly he made so many awful movies. And not when knowing that Alice blew past its budget. (Roth admits to $150M, but I hear the real figure is $200M.)
The only other major newcomer this weekend was Overture’s Brooklyn’s Finest directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke opened like most R-rated action films: it had a $4.7M Friday and $5.5M Saturday for a $13.5M weekend.
Here’s the Top 10 as of Saturday. (Numbers will be refined in the morning.)
1. Alice In Wonderland (Disney) NEW [3,728 Theaters]
Friday $41M, Saturday $44.3M, Weekend $116.3M, Worldwide $210.3M
2. Brooklyn’s Finest (Overture) NEW [1,936 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Saturday $5.2M, Weekend $13.1M
3. Shutter Island (Paramount) Week 3 [3,178 Theaters]
Friday $4.0M, Saturday $6.0M, Weekend $13.0M, Cume $95.6M
4. Cop Out (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,150 Theaters]
Friday $2.8M, Saturday $4.0M, Weekend $9.1M, Cume $32.3M
5. The Crazies (Overture) Week 2 [2,479 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $3.0M, Weekend $6.9M, Cume $27.3M
6. Avatar (Fox) [2,163 Theaters] Week 12
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $3.6M, Weekend $7.7M, Cume $720.1M
7. Percy Jackson (Fox) Week 4 [2,994 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.3M, Weekend $5.1M, Cume $78.0M
8. Valentine’s Day (Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,040 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.9M, Weekend $4.2M, Cume $106.4M
9. Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight) Week 12 [1,274 Theaters]
Friday $925K, Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.3M, Cume $29.5M
10. Dear John (Sony) Week 5 [2,496 Theaters]
Friday $965K, Saturday $1.3M, Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $76.6M
7:40 PM: I’m hearing that Friday’s North American grosses for Disney’s 3D Alice In Wonderland are looking like $35+M and maybe even as high as $40M from 3,728 theaters. This would make it the biggest film of 2010 so far and its aleady the biggest 3D bow ever. Also opening this weekend is Overture’s cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest which could hit $5M today for a possible $13M weekend.
10:55 AM: I just learned that today’s matinees for Disney’s Alice In Wonderland are running ahead of Avatar‘s so far.
FRIDAY AM: First it was $90+M. Now I’m hearing from Hollywood that Disney’s Alice In Wonderland has a real shot at $100 million weekend.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Alice in Wonderland owes most of its opening weekend solely to Avatar. It’s only doing this good by default, because it forced Avatar out of so many 3D engagements. It also had the benefit of being the main trailer attached to Avatar at what seemed like 100% of Avatar’s showings. And, of course, Avatar has convinced audiences that 3D can be great and made people hungry for more. Of course, Alice is a huge brand name so, just like Transformers 2, it’s going to have a big opening. But it will see massive drops from here on out once people realize Burton has butchered yet more classic characters to fit his own twisted, perverse, sadomasochistic and painfully unentertaining visions. He’s done it to Batman, Planet of the Apes and Willy Wonka before. This sad little excuse for a man shouldn’t be let near another beloved classic of the culture ever again.
Unfortunately thanks to Burton and this movie we are now back to post-production converted digital 3D, a style which compares to genuine Avatar-style dual-camera 3D the same way that Ted Turner’s colorized It’s a Wonderful Life compares to the glorious Technicolor Gone with the Wind. Fake, digitized, post-production 3D is the same weak sauce we’ve been seeing on every 3D movie before. It will continue to do NOTHING to convince people that 3D is the wave of the future that all movies should be seen in. Unless the rest of Hollywood takes Cameron’s lead and films their movies in PROPER 3D, the whole thing could become just another William Castle-like fad in the end. If that happens, theaters will be sorry they poured money into the technology. Theaters more than anyone need to tell Hollywood to make 3D movies the right away because their business is going to suffer badly if Hollywood drops the ball on this. Cameron, Spielberg and Jackson cannot be the only ones who film in genuine 3D or the industry will see this revolution evaporate faster than it started.
Here’s a guy who knows what he’s talking about. Good post Eric.
Amen!
and…. he did it without using inferior words.
Solid post sir. Couldn’t agree with you more on every point you made.
Burton butchered Batman? That’s crazy talk.
lol…Cameron, Spielberg, Jackson…three terrible MOR hacks…you are welcome to them, good sir
WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Biggest Shocker of the year.
I caught an Alice matinee. I hated it. I actually walked out near the end when it became Lord of the Rings lite. Pretty 3D visuals marred by an awful reconfiguring of the classic story template. It actually tries to ratchet up doubt and suspense about whether the eponymous character is the real person who shifted the Wonderland landscape as a child. There’s a lot of crap crammed into each frame, but the whole enterprise is still dishwater dull. And honestly, the routine of Burton burying Depp underneath garish makeup and prosthetics is starting to wear dangerously thin. The Mad Hatter never registers as anything other than Johnny Depp doing the same, tired shtick from all of his other Burton collaborations.
It’ll be championed only by Burton apologists and people who like to say Ooh and Aah without thinking about a story too much. The people who ripped Avatar because of their allegation that it wasn’t revolutionary enough in the storytelling department had better deem it the prohibitive favorite for worst film of 2010 to maintain evaluative consistency. Maybe I have an Avatar hangover or something because I was hoping for a similar immersive experience and instead I was filled with dread about what can go wrong with the 3D format when it’s in the hands of a once-great director who’s clearly resting on his laurels.
Never underestimate the power of Johnny Depp I suppose. The problem with Alice is no one is going to say, “Jesus, hey Marge, you gotta see this Alice in Wonderland movie in 3D, the tickets are 15 dollars, but the movie is incredible!”. The movie just won’t have legs. Deadline can talk all it wants about blowing away Avatar’s opening weekend. But Alice won’t make $700+ million, or 2.6 billion worldwide. Not an icecube’s fucking chance in the coldest depths of hell. Sorry, but it had to be said.
johndoe you are my hero. you are so smart. you are so loyal an avatar follower it makes the rest of us blush with shame & envy. you will be rewarded well in heaven for your incredible loyalty. you CERTAINLY know what yu are talking about.
goodby my love. my lord. my…avatar….
wtf?
Thanks. It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m already sick of hearing that Alice in Wonderland opened bigger than Avatar. Guess what folks? Avatar didn’t open that big!
Ouch, Avatar took quite a hit. Alice’s numbers are amazing, it will be interesting to see if How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans continue this trend of 3d movies exceeding expectations or if they will lead to oversaturation.
“Avatar” “took quite a hit”? lol
Considering it’s been out only 11 weeks and has already made $715 million domestic and over $2.5 billion so far, I don’t think anyone’s complaining that it’s only fallen to #7, with it being #2 every non-weekend day for the past 2 weeks.
It’s had no competition till now.
Yeesh, the Avatar fanatics are out in full force on this thread…
Yay and Hurray for Alice!! down with little blue aliens.
Thank U!!!!
No way will ALICE have the same “legs” AVATAR had. It had bad reviews and its word-of-mouth will not be as strong and it will not have as many diehard fans.
But it will end up making a crazy amount of money even if it drops 50% or more next weekend. I’m thinking 340 million domestically and 850 million WW.
I’m disappointed about AVATAR though. I really wanted it to go past 750 million domestically but will end up stopping around 740 million, and $2.725 billion WW … which of course is not too shabby.
Nikki, you’ve got to stop the snide little remarks about Avatar. Alice will never reach its global cume. Avatar was only the 28th highest opening weekend in 2009. 28th!! If Alice beats its opening, I should hope so!! But it won’t be doing “better” for a very long time.
Very nice so far for Alice in Wonderland, it won’t have the legs of Avatar but it should end up very big. To say that Brooklyn’s Finest opened like most R rated action flicks is absolutely silly. Their is no specific range that films in this genre open to, and this one was expected to open to numbers far less than this. It’s actually rather surprising how well it performed opening day, as it’s tracking was showing a high single digit weekend in most cases.
The movie isn’t very good – I expect the profit to die out fairly quickly.
How much did midnight showings bring in?
Really? People aren’t tired of Depp and Burton yet?
You might want to update that figure armand. This is going to be huge.
Looks like a movie you need to see on big screen rather than dvd, so likely has some legs depending on reviews.
With these great numbers (Avatar, Shuttle Island and this one), wonder if the studios are re-thinking their production cutoffs? People might be treating going to the movies as the new vacation in today’s new normal. The more spectacular the movie, the most interest.
The pic of Helena Bonham-Carter is freaky. Burton certainly has a way with things. Recommend his recent interview on Charlie Rose.
you can’t compare this with Avatar– just look at their running lengths. way more Alices per day . Avatar 4 the most . Funny lat night I tried to get in for Alice . it was all sold out so people were going back to Avatar- it was sold out also
It might open huge, but it will not last. I haven’t spoken to anyone that has liked it yet.
My IMAX sold out every Friday showing a few days in advance, and only the 11 AM and 10 PM on Saturday are not yet sold out (though both will be before long). Clearly, this is at least opening a lot better than Avatar, but no it will not have very good legs, at least nowhere near the vicinity of Avatar. If it makes $120 million this weekend, I call a sub-$300 million total.
Alice has to thank Avatar for that huge opening. Everyone that saw the James Cameron flick remembers the smiling cat in the Alice trailer. It’s definately a win on it’s own but they should send Fox some cash.
This rarely happens but I’m stunned the figure is so high. Usually I at least have some inclination to see 100m + openers (unless it’s Transformers 2) but nothing about this film tempts me to see it. I expect a massive drop next weekend, that’s for sure.
Wow, I don’t think any of us thought this would happen, I was guessing 70 million at the highest, but this is going to make atleast 250 million domestic.
But I would guess it’s going to make almost 300 million domestic and huge worldwide returns.
I do believe it is heavily front-loaded and will most likely drop 50%+ next week. Its a pity that Avatar only made 1.3m on Friday considering it made 1.6m on Thursday. The loss of 3d theaters really affected the film. That’s going to be tough for future releases trying to balance out 3d space, but then again on Avatar’s 13th weekend, i guess that was expected. 750m will be a stretch at this point.
Saw Alice last night and thought it was spectacular. I’m not always a big Tim Burton fan. But this is HIS movie. Not Depp’s.
I think you’ll either love the movie and the visuals or you’ll hate it. Don’t know that there will be much in between ground.
That being said. Any mention or comparison to Avatar’s BO is ridonkulous. Alice may hit 300m but it’s not getting anywhere close to Avatar. I am not an Avatar-lover, either. Haven’t even seen it. I just know that those types of numbers are rare. Plus Alice will be off of 3D screens in 3 weeks vs. Avatars 10.
good news. Would that the public began to take to heart the message of Alice in Wonderland and question the radical nonsense perpetrated on them by those in authority like criminal banksters and fake government leaders.
Black is white and the red queen is ruling right now.
one of the most idiotic comments on here ever.
Spot on comment, buddhabob. Saw this film, loved it, visually amazing with story to match, with its subversive subtext against the current administration. This film is an event, it is going to huge with the young — as a story of rebellion against the status quo. Let the tea parties begin…
Boring movie with fun characters. Word of mouth will bring it down, and like a previous comment states, noooo leeeggs. I’m disappoitned i contributed to a big opening weekend.
who cares if it has legs. If some people dont like it others might. you know i heard the same crap from those who didnt like Shutter Island. Yet S.I. is not a bad movie, no word of mouth killed it and it has a good enough run going that other movies would kill for.
Seems like a lot of people were saying the same thing about Avatar. No one knows until the show is over, predictions are meaningless. The one thing that will hurt Alice is it’s straight to video in 12 weeks.
I have a feeling Iger and Disney will reconsider that move. Disney has reconsidered moves in the past. Believe me if Disney is still making money in 12 weeks off of Alice in theaters they will squeeze more out of it
Who cares if it has no legs. We are not talking about another Avatar movie here. It will easily make 250 million dollars domestically and has a good chance to hit 300 million dollars. That is a huge hit no matter what you naysayers think.
This movie does not grab my attention, it kind of reminds of the Mike Myers Dr. Seuss movie, that was a corny movie.
unoriginal,empty and boring movie with great set and clothes!
why did i see this movie ? i dislike Burton movies since “ed wood”
Wonder if Iger will regret winning that shortened window fight.