Alice in Wonderland Easily Wins 3rd Weekend

As expected it was another box office victory for Alice in Wonderland which cruised to $34 million to take its cumulative gross to $265 million. That is an incredible take through three weeks, and shows the strength of the 3D draw especially. Alice though will take its first hit next weekend when How to Train Your Dragon arrives, which will steal away many of its 3D theaters and family base of moviegoers.

Exceeding industry expectations was Diary of a Wimpy Kid which made over $21 million. The book series adaptation performed well considering it didn’t have the a huge following and had such strong competition from Alice. The Bounty Hunter pulled in $21 million which is right about where I expected it to be, just not in second place. The star power was the draw and the familiar subject matter has been a tried and true method to making money.

The big disappointment was Repo Men which made only $6 million despite a relatively heavy marketing campaign. Opening on the same weekend as the first round of the NCAA Tournament probably contributed to the damaged box office take but reviews weren’t good enough to get anyone else out to see it. Green Zone fell hard from its first weekend, similar target audience, but whether that was due more to the tournament or poor word of mouth would be tough to determine.

1- Alice in Wonderland $34.5 ($265.7)
2- Diary of a Wimpy Kid $21.8 (OPEN)
3- The Bounty Hunter $9.6 (OPEN)
4- Repo Men $6.1 (OPEN)
5- Green Zone $5.9 ($24.7)
6- Shes Out of My League $5.9 ($19.9)
7- Shutter Island $4.8 ($115.7)
8- Avatar $4.0 ($736.8)
9- Our Family Wedding $3.8 ($13.6)
10- Remember Me $3.2 ($13.9)