Weekend Wrap-Up

Disney's Alice Destroys Box Office Expectations

By John Hamann

March 7, 2010

He wields a mighty spoon, and he's angry!

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As expected, Avatar gets the big rub as it loses all of its IMAX screens this weekend, and many of its 3-D screens to Alice in Wonderland. The question heading into the weekend was how big would the Avatar drop be, and in its 12th weekend, Avatar earns $7.7 million, or a drop of 44%. Its previous biggest dip had come in weekend 10 when it dropped 31%. I don't think anyone at Fox is going to cry about the party being over. Avatar now has a running total of $720.2 million domestically, and $1.85 billion from foreign showings.

The Crazies, despite being a much better film than Cop Out, sees a bigger dip this weekend. The horror remake earned only $7 million in its second frame, and drops a tough 56% despite being 50 percentage points better than Cop Out at RottenTomatoes. This one, like Brooklyn's Finest, is from Overture Films, and is again modestly budgeted. The Crazies cost Overture only $20 million to make, so it should see a small profit for the studio. Currently, The Crazies has ravaged $27.4 million at the domestic box office.

Seventh goes to Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Like Avatar, Percy Jackson was right in the firing line of Alice in Wonderland, this time due to demographics and not technology. Percy earned $5.1 million and dropped 47% compared to last weekend when it fell 37%. The Lightning Thief now has a domestic total of $78 million against a production budget of $95 million. This one is now approaching $200 million worldwide, so a sequel should be coming shortly.




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That puts Valentine's Day into eighth spot (the lower the better). The poorly reviewed flick with a cast of thousands earned $4.3 million in its fourth frame, and dropped 53% compared to last weekend. Valentine's Day crossed the $100 million mark on Monday, which gives Julia Roberts ten movies to have earned that amount or more. V-Day has a running total now of $106.4 million, against a budget of only $50 million.

Crazy Heart takes ninth place, as it continues to ride Jeff Bridges' Oscar nomination to solid numbers at the box office. Bridges is the easy favorite to win tonight, and people are obviously talking about it since the movie increased 36% from last week to $3.4 million. The only film to really receive an Oscar bump this year, Crazy Heart has a current domestic total of $29.6 million.

Tenth goes to Dear John, as the Nicholas Sparks weeper manages to hold on. Dear John earned $2.9 million and dropped 41%. The $25 million Screen Gems entry has now earned $76.7 million.

Overall, the box office is way up, as Alice In Wonderland alone outgrossed last year's top 12, when Watchmen led with $55.2 million. A year ago, the top 12 took in $101.6 million. This year, the top 12 earned a massive $185.8 million. Next weekend, four new films hit screens: Green Zone, with Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass; Our Family Wedding with Forest Whittaker; She's Out of My League with Jay Baruchel; and Remember Me with Robert Pattinson.


Top Weekend Box Office for 3/6/10-3/8/10 (Actuals)
Rank Film Distributor Estimated Gross Actual Gross Weekly Change Running Total
1 Alice in Wonderland Walt Disney Pictures $116,300,000 $116,101,023 New $116,101,023
2 Brooklyn's Finest Overture Films $13,500,000 $13,350,299 New $13,350,299
3 Shutter Island Paramount $13,300,000 $13,225,411 - 41.6% $95,750,005
4 Cop Out Warner Bros. Pictures $9,145,000 $9,289,311 - 49.0% $32,504,610
5 Avatar 20th Century Fox $7,700,000 $8,118,102 - 40.5% $720,607,444
6 The Crazies Paramount $7,016,000 $7,078,851 - 55.9% $27,472,164
7 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Twentieth Century Fox $5,100,000 $5,124,623 - 46.5% $78,057,749
8 Valentine's Day Warner Bros. Pictures $4,270,000 $4,154,110 - 54.2% $106,303,870
9 Crazy Heart FOX SEARCHLIGHT $3,350,000 $3,312,591 New $29,532,002
10 Dear John Screen Gems (Sony) $2,850,000 $2,782,079 - 42.1% $76,626,086
11 Tooth Fairy 20th Century Fox $1,675,000 $1,684,408 - 50.8% $56,240,052
12 The Wolfman Universal $1,600,375 $1,636,835 - 61.6% $60,446,320
  Also Opening/Notables
  The Secret of Kells Gkids $40,715 $39,826 New $39,826
  The Ghost Writer SUMMIT $1,333,000 $1,287,646 New $2,600,505
  The Blind Side Twentieth Century Fox $1,270,000 $1,257,186 + 1.5% $250,467,047
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
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