‘Alice’ Is No. 1 Film Again, Has $62 Million in Sales (Update2)
March 14, 2010, 1:53 PM EDT(Adds tables at the end of the story.)
By Esmé E. Deprez and Dan Hart
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- “Alice in Wonderland,” the Lewis Carroll tale re-imagined in 3-D by director Tim Burton, was the top film in the U.S. and Canada for a second straight weekend, bringing in $62 million in ticket sales for Walt Disney Co.
“Green Zone” opened in second place with $14.5 million for General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, Hollywood.com Box- Office said today in an e-mailed statement.
“Alice,” which stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, has earned $208.6 million in its first two weeks of release. It set a handful of records in its opening weekend: the sixth-biggest opening ever, the biggest debut for March and for a 3-D film, the largest opening weekend for the year, and the best-ever Imax opening.
This weekend’s “Alice” sales “would be a great number for an opening weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, film analyst for Hollywood.com Box-Office in Los Angeles. “And for this to happen in the first quarter, it has never been done before. It has to be word-of-mouth that’s driving this.”
Dergarabedian said the movie, which also features Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway, is Burton’s highest-grossing film to date, bypassing 2005’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” with $206.5 million.
‘She’s Out of My League’
In “Green Zone,” Matt Damon plays a U.S. Army officer investigating an Iraq war conspiracy. Weaving together fiction with fact, such as the Bush administration’s real-life failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the thriller was partly inspired by Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone.”
Paul Greengrass, of “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” fame, directs, and Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan also star.
“A film with the pedigree of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass of the ‘Bourne’ films, I’m sure they expected much more,” said Dergarabedian.
Viacom Inc.’s “She’s Out of My League” debuted in third with $9.6 million for Paramount Pictures. Jay Baruchel plays an average Joe who becomes perplexed after finding himself dating a beautiful blond woman.
“Remember Me” opened in fourth place with $8.28 million for Summit Entertainment LLC. The romantic drama follows two characters, played by Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin, who fall in love while struggling with family tragedies. Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper play their fathers.
‘Our Family Wedding’
Pattinson last appeared on the big screen as a teenage vampire in the “Twilight” series from Summit, which also distributed “The Hurt Locker,” the winner of six Oscars including best picture.
“Shutter Island,” slid to fifth from third with sales of $8.14 million for Paramount. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a detective investigating an insane asylum, and has taken in $108 million since its Feb. 19 release.
News Corp.’s “Our Family Wedding” opened in sixth place with $7.6 million for the studio’s Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film features America Ferrera, Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia and chronicles the adventures of an interracial couple’s wedding uniting black and Hispanic families.
“Avatar” finished in seventh place with $6.6 million. The sci-fi adventure, the highest grossing film ever, has made $730.3 million domestically for News Corp.’s Fox Studio since its Dec. 18 release.
Sales for the top 12 films rose 47 percent to $128.9 million from $87.8 million a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Year-to-date receipts total $2.24 billion, up 8.9 percent from a year earlier. Attendance is up 6.7 percent this year.
The following table has figures provided by studios to Hollywood.com. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales from March 12, yesterday and estimates for today.
Rev. Avg./ Pct. Total Movie (mln) Theaters Theater Chg. (mln) Wks ================================================================ 1 ALICE IN WONDERLAND $62.0 3,728 $16,631 -47 $208.6 2 2 GREEN ZONE 14.5 3,003 4,840 -- 14.5 1 3 SHE’S OUT OF LEAGUE 9.6 2,956 3,248 -- 9.6 1 4 REMEMBER ME 8.3 2,212 3,744 -- 8.3 1 5 SHUTTER ISLAND 8.1 3,356 2,426 -38 108.0 4 6 OUR FAMILY WEDDING 7.6 1,605 4,735 -- 7.6 1 7 AVATAR 6.6 1,718 3,842 -19 730.3 13 8 BROOKLYN’S FINEST 4.3 1,939 2,212 -68 21.4 2 9 COP OUT 4.2 2,882 1,468 -54 39.4 3 10 THE CRAZIES 3.7 2,359 1,547 -48 33.4 3 11 PERCY JACKSON 3.13 2,175 1,437 -39 82.3 5
CRAZY HEART 3.13 1,361 2,296 -6 34.2 13
Top 12 Films Grosses
This Week Year Ago Pct.
(mln) (mln) Chg. ===================================
$128.9 $87.8 46.9
Year-to-date Revenue
2010 2009
YTD YTD Pct.
(mln) (mln) Chg. ===================================
$2,240 $2,058 8.9
Year-to-date Attendance: +6.7%
--Editors: Rob Golum, Sylvia Wier
To contact the reporters on this story: Esmé E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net; Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sylvia Wier at swier@bloomberg.net; Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net.
