Weekend Recap: Go ask Alice … for money

“Alice” is queen (yes I know that’s a picture of the White Queen, not Alice) at the box office again, taking in $62.7 million in its second week. No film came even close, with Matt Damon star vehicle Green Zone making just $14.3 M and no other new release even breaking the $10 M mark.

Certainly 3D will not do for Alice and Wonderland what it did for Avatar, but it was definitely essential to getting “Alice” past $200 M in only its second week – that and no competition in terms of demographic. I’ve still yet to see it, but at some point I’ll get around to it.

1. Alice in Wonderland – $62.7 M (weekend) … $209.3 M (gross)
2. Green Zone – $14.3 M … $14.3 M
3. She’s Out of My League – $9.8 M … $9.8 M
4. Shutter Island – $8.14 M … $108 M
5. Remember Me – $8.08 M … $8.08 M
6. Our Family Wedding – $7.6 M … $7.6 M
7. Avatar – $6.5 M … $730.2 M
8. Brooklyn’s Finest – $4.4 M … $21.5 M
9. Cop Out –$4.3 M … $39.5 M
10. The Crazies – $3.7 M … $33.4 M

I did see Green Zone, however, which was enjoyable. I have to say that $14.3 M is disappointing, especially for a movie that had a $100 M production budget. It’ll be lucky to earn $40 M by the time it’s done, which might change director Paul Greengrass’ mind about not making another Bourne movie.

All the newcomers under-performed big-time except Remember Me and Our Family Wedding finished where I expected – but still low. My Top 5 predictions were dead-on … yesterday. When the estimates came in, Shutter Island finished behind Remember Me, but the actuals have them flipped. Oh well. Still, two of the last three weeks have gone very well for me prediction-wise

The four new films this week booted a lot of movies out of the Top 10. The big Valentine’s Day weekend films are all gone and Oscar remnant Crazy Heart understandably didn’t hang in there. The big release weekend also knocked Brooklyn’s Finest from second to eighth. The cop film dropped by two-thirds from last week.

Will Avatar have enough to stay in the Top 10 next weekend? That’s the interesting question.