'Alice' reigns for a third week with 'Wimpy Kid' not far behind

By Sarah Sluis

Alice in Wonderland enjoyed a third week at #1, with another $34.5 million and a sub-50% drop. Next week the Tim Burton fantasy will lose 3D screens and viewers to DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon, but its $265 million cumulative domestic gross (to date) puts it in good shape as it finishes out its run.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid was the surprise #2, earning $21.6 million to edge out The Bounty Hunter. Making good on the adage that girls are willing to see movies with boy stars (the reverse is not held to be true), the movie drew 50% males and 50% females despite its all-boy cast. Strong advance tickets sales from its fan base made for a solid weekend as a whole, with the movie playing consistently Friday through Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sequel to this movie if the stars' puberty doesn't get in the way.

The Bounty Hunter debuted in third place with $21 million. Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler were able to wield their star power to their advantage despite critical cries that they were phoning it in. The movie earned just a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, bad even for a movie from the romantic comedy genre. I guess the addition of the "thriller/action" element helped plunge this movie even farther down in critical reception. I have stronger hopes for Aniston's next romantic comedy project, The Switch (previously titled The Baster), which will release this August.

Universal's Repo Men failed to meet even the studio's modest expectations, tallying a meager $6.1 million. The sci-fi clunker had little to enchant audiences. And with the health care reform bill passing Sunday night, the idea of a futuristic corporation repossessing replacement organs is a fear far from most Americans' minds.

The Runaways opened to $803,000 in limited release, for a per-theatre average of $3,200. The opening is on the low side for a movie with a planned expansion, so this rock biopic will need to find a way to gain speed, not lose it, as it moves into wide release. If the per-theatre average goes down, as it is apt to do in subsequent weeks, this movie will not be in good shape.

Greenberg kept its distribution to three theatres for a high per-theatre average of $40,000. The neurotic dramedy from director Noah Baumbach will also expand this Friday, and its strong debut should carry it into a profitable second week.

This Friday, How to Train Your Dragon will swoop into theatres alongside '80s retro-comedy Hot Tub Time Machine.

Will 'Bounty Hunter' poach top spot from 'Alice'?

By Sarah Sluis

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler don't look like they're going to become the next comedy duo in The Bounty Hunter (3,074 theatres), a comedy/action hybrid designed to attract the date-night crowd to the tune of $20-30 million. Aniston and Butler play a separated couple reunited when Butler, a

bounty hunter, must bring in Aniston for skipping a court date; the duo subsequently are pursued by a new set of enemies. The mix of "action thriller" and "marital comedy" didn't go down well with THR critic Kirk Honeycutt, who was frustrated by the movie's implausibility: "Would the

former couple really react to an attempt to murder them in broad

daylight by continuing a quarrel?" Though the star power of Aniston and Butler is spotty, this release has the best chance of unseating 3D Alice in Wonderland.

A retread of worn sci-fi tropes, Repo Men (2,522 theatres) stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker as human-organ repossessers in a futuristic world. Unfortunate people who have defaulted on their contracts have their bodies opened and replacement organs removed, but the plot doesn't really expand from there. Thematically, the movie is vacant, "ultimately having nothing to say beyond, 'Pay your bills,'" according to critic Frank Lovece. Universal, which misfired last week with Green Zone, is on track to have a flop a second week in a row.

Thanks to its devoted readers, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (3,077 theatres) has had strong advance ticket sales, but its pre-teen boy following will limit its overall audience. The industry likes to cite one of its tried-and-true adages--"girls will go see movies starring boys, but boys won't see movies starring girls"--so the demographics may broaden. According to our critic Ethan Alter, the movie doesn't compare to the source material. "Diary takes Kinney's well-realized characters and transforms them into boring stick figures," and when the hero "makes mistakes and bruises peoples' feelings," he comes off as a "total prick" instead of a flawed protagonist. Don't think fans of the book won't notice. Alter adds that "kids are often smarter than we think�at least smart enough to recognize when something they enjoyed on the page has been dumbed down for the big screen."

On the specialty front, Greenberg (3 theatres) and The Runaways (244 theatres) both open today, with The Runaways launching an aggressive expansion campaign that will cap with a wide release mid-April. Director Noah Baumbach's Greenberg hasn't impressed critics too much, with star Ben Stiller's unlikable character. I personally was intrigued by the very un-Hollywood, realistic look of co-star Greta Gerwig, but the story as a whole isn't Baumbach's best.

The Runaways should inspire a generation of teenagers with its glamorous rock star girls, but the movie has a superficial feel, with its characters constantly in motion and having little time to reflect on what's going on. Both Kristen Stewart (Twilight) as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie nail their performances. But really, this movie is about being a tough rocker, being on tour, wearing fantastic 70s clothes and being baaaad. I can't imagine this movie being anything but a hit among young women, yet its R rating might prevent the youngest of rock idolaters from aging up from Hannah Montana.

On Monday we'll see if The Bounty Hunter rounded up more audiences than Alice, and if Greenberg and The Runaways had promising opening weekends.

'New Moon' for Dakota Fanning

By Sarah Sluis

A teen actress who has yet to play a role in a teen-oriented film, Dakota Fanning will make her teen idolworthy debut by appearing in the Twilight sequel, New Moon, as Jane, a "sweet but sneaky" vampire.

Shrewdly, Fanning has played roles in both adult and family films throughout her career, never banking on her popularity with only one demographic. However, her choices have also led to a somewhat fractured screen persona. Many of her roles in family or children-oriented films could easily slip under the radar of someone who only saw her as a vulnerable child in thrillers and action films (Man on Fire, Hide & Seek, War of the Worlds) or the occasional role in an inter-generational female-oriented film (The Secret Life of Bees, Uptown Girls). Among films targeted towards children and their families, Fanning has starred not only in current release Coraline, but also big literary adaptations Charlotte's Web and The Cat in the Hat. Now that she's a teenager, she's chosen two teen-themed pictures for her next projects.

Her choice to appear in New Moon will be her second team-up with Twilight star Kristen Stewart, with whom she will co-star in The Runaways, a movie about the 1970s teen band. Stewart will play guitarist/songwriter Joan Jett, while Fanning will play lead singer Cherie Currie. While it's unknown exactly how they plan to script the rock biopic, hopefully the filmmakers will include a few juicy details of the rock star life. The transition from child to teen to adult actor is notoriously tough, but the strategic casting of Fanning (although let's ignore the indie film with the much publicized child rape scene, Hounddog, that inspired outrage) could propel her into a career like that of Jodie Foster or Drew Barrymore.