'Alice' enchants US box office
2010-03-07 21:15
Los Angeles -Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland broke through the looking glass all the way to the top of the North American box office chart this weekend with a whopping $112m in takings, according to estimates.
The live-action, CGI (computer generated imagery), 3D version of Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy tale starring Johnny Depp and Australian Mia Wasikowska has become the highest grossing film released on a weekend in the January-March period.
The seventh Burton-Depp collaboration ended Martin Scorsese's two-week reign at the top of the box office with Shutter Island, which took second place with $13m, according to preliminary data from box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Crime drama Brooklyn's Finest, starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle as three burnt-out cops transformed by the same violent assignment opened in third place with $12m.
Avatar still strong
The Bruce Willis action comedy Cop Out fell from second to fourth in its second weekend, raking in $9m.
Fifth place went to The Crazies, about the military's containment of a man-made virus that causes permanent insanity and death. The film took $7m in its second weekend.
Falling two spots to sixth place but still raking in millions, was science-fiction epic Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time with more than $2bn worldwide to date.
In its 12th week on North American release, Canadian James Cameron's film made another $7m.
The Oscar-nominated movie was followed by mythological adventure-fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on Rick Riordan's book and starring Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman. The movie earned $5m in its fourth week.
Romantic ensemble Valentine's Day, starring Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner and Jessica Alba amongst others scooped $4.3m in its fourth week for eighth place.
Ninth place with $3.5m went to Crazy Heart, a low-budget drama about a washed-up country singer struggling to rebuild his career, starring Jeff Bridges in the Oscar-nominated lead role.
Romantic tear-jerker Dear John, an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, took tenth place with $3m in its fifth week.