Mia Wasikowska in Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland grossed $41 million on Friday and an estimated $45 million on Saturday, reports Nikki Finke at Deadline.com. Despite wildly mixed reviews, Tim Burton's latest fantasy has now officially had the biggest 3D opening weekend of all time. (James Cameron's Avatar grossed $77 million on its opening weekend.) That's good news for Disney, as Alice in Wonderland cost a mint — according to one source, ca. $250 million. Adding to the film's cost was the transfer from 2D to 3D, but that may have been what did the trick. If so, the two upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movies and Clash of the Titans are in luck.
According to Finke's preliminary estimates, Alice in Wonderland is expected to gross more than $115 million by Sunday evening, easily making it the biggest 2010 release to date. Thanks to the movie, on Friday IMAX had their biggest day ever, with a take of $4.3 million.
Also on Saturday, Shutter Island earned an estimated $6.1 million, Brooklyn's Finest $5.5 million, Cop Out $4.2 million, Avatar $3.7 million, and The Crazies $3 million. That means Avatar was once again among the top five movies. Bear in mind that those numbers will be adjusted later on Sunday, as more accurate estimates are released.
Also in her Alice in Wonderland piece, Finke discusses the ironies of the film's success. It's well worth checking out.
I just saw A in W in IMAX 3D. Hope to see it again. The 3D is put to good use, much better than Avatar. A in W underrated.
TheDorsalFin,
Ouch! You're absolutely right. The text has been amended.
That's because every one expects it to be good 3d like Avatar. Next week it will plumit with bad word of mouth. The 3d was horrid.
This will not make the people that don't like 3d happy. They are so convinced that 3d will wear thin on people after awhile because it did in the past. The is not totally accurate. In the 1950's the last 3d releases actually did well. Hollywood just got caught up in other things like wide formats and put 3d on the back burner anyway. Imax has always done well with it 3d presentations. I just took hollywood to put 3d on it's major releases to give people that like 3d something to support. They will not tire of 3d like the people that don't like 3d where thinking all along. If you don't like 3d of course you will tire of it, but if you like something you won't tire of it. That is just logical. Not everyone feels that same as you do.
It's making too much money. Have I become outmoded with my filmmaking?
To say that Alice in Wonderland is the "biggest 3D release of all time" is a bit misleading, considering Avatar's over all box office numbers. Perhaps, "biggest 3D opening weekend of all time" would be a bit more appropriate.