Audiences don looking-glasses for 'Alice'

By Sarah Sluis

Alice in Wonderland continued its boffo box office with another first-place finish. The 3D fantasy dropped less than 50% to bring in $62 million. Despite more middling reviews, this 3D blockbuster is way ahead of last year's failed Big March Film, Watchmen. Alice has already done twice the business of that movie's cumulative gross, making the March slot a more profitable time for exhibitors. This week's top ten movies grossed over 50% more than their counterparts in 2009. Tickets from more expensive 3D and IMAX venues added to the bump. IMAX screens for Alice in Wonderland, for example, accounted for 2% of the screens but 13% of profit.

Green Zone debuted in second place with $14.5 million. The open was far less profitable than the last Matt Damon-Paul Greengrass effort, The Bourne Ultimatum, and offered yet another example of Iraq War-related movies doing poorly at the box office. With over $100 million in production costs, this movie definitely won't break even in theatres.

Under-the-radar comedy She's Out of My League opened to $9.6 million, slightly above expectations. By comparison, Fox Searchlight's Our Family Wedding debuted with $7.6 million.

The tale of a Hispanic woman marrying a black man, to predictable and

comedic family strife, drew mainly Hispanic and black audiences.

Though the comedy earned less than its competitor, Wedding boasted a higher per-screen average ($4,700 vs. $3,200 for League)

thanks to its smaller, more targeted release.

Despite the presence of Twilight star Robert Pattinson, Remember Me opened at an unimpressive $8.3 million. Women comprised about 80% of the audience, but apparently a Twilight star alone does not a blockbuster make. I'll be watching to see if The Runaways, starring Twilighter Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, draws more eyes.

On the heels of its Best Picture win at the Oscars, The Hurt Locker earned $828,000 in 349 theatres. Combined with last week's $439,000 gross, the movie has racked up over $1 million from its re-release, even though the DVD is already in stores. Overall, the Oscars didn't give much of a bump to winners' grosses, with many films showing substantial drops from the previous week (The Blind Side was an exception.) The Oscars were scheduled later this year to avoid conflicting with the Olympics, so most of these movies' wins will spike DVD rather than ticket sales.

This Friday, adult comedy The Bounty Hunter, a comedy for the elementary set, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and sci-fi action movie Repo Men will compete for audiences and try to unseat Alice from the top spot.

'Green Zone' leads this week's new releases

By Sarah Sluis

With four new movies competing for audiences' attention, this weekend will be a busy one at the box office. The number one film, however, is unlikely to change. After a hundred-million-plus opening weekend, Alice in Wonderland should stay in first place, earning at least $50 million in its second weekend.

Green Zone (3,003 theatres) appears to be the likely candidate for second place. Directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon, the movie could be mistaken for a Bourne knockoff but ends up being far from it. What could have been the birth of the "action muckraker" genre, according to our critic Chris Barsanti, turns into a "bad drama" with a "time-compressed story that sacrifices believability." Close followers of the Iraq invasion and search for WMDs will be rewarded with characters strikingly similar to the original players.

The middling blue-collar comedy She's Out of My League (2,956 theatres) details a romance between a TSA employee (Jay Baruchel) and "a rich, nice, gorgeous law-school grad turned high-end party planner" (Alice Eve). While our critic Frank Lovece praised the movie's performances and male bonding, he felt the movie didn't gel, lacking that je ne sais quoi: chemistry.

The other comedy on the plate is a PG-13 tale of nuptial hijinks, Our Family Wedding (1,605 theatres). Starring the lovely America Ferrera from "Ugly Betty," along with Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia, the movie lacks the kind of comedic sparkle that would make it great, but according to THR critic Sheri Linden, "there's a sweetness to the silliness that's likely to find a warm welcome." With such a small release, and not much of a marketing campaign to speak of, this movie could either be a surprise performer or a theatrical release that serves primarily as a platform for DVD sales.

Romantic drama Remember Me (2,212 theatres) makes a play for the hearts of Twilight fans, to some success. Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin ("Lost") co-star as NYU students and lovers who have both experienced the death of a family member. As they bond over their shared sense of loss, another historical tragedy steps in to finish up the plot. Hint: it's set in New York City during the summer of 2001. Whether this movie over- or under-performs at the box office will say a lot about Pattinson's star power.

On Monday we'll circle back to see where these four releases fell in the top ten (hopefully they all make it there), and grumble a little about our loss of one whole hour to Daylight Savings Time.