Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and their Disney overlords will be smiling like the Cheshire Cat today as Alice In Wonderland has nabbed the US box office crown with $116.3 million, breaking the non-sequel launch record (Avatar earned $77 million on release) and smashing Burton’s personal opening record to boot.
Alice also did well elsewhere in the world, grabbing $94 million for a worldwide total of $210.3 million, knocking Avatar off of #1 in several countries. Doubt James Cameron is too bothered, though.
Antoine Fuqua saw his latest cop drama, Brooklyn’s Finest, open decently with $13.5 million, handily counter-programming against the more family-friendly Alice, which meant that reigning champ **Shutter Island **had to slip down to third place with $13.3 million.
Kevin Smith has a smaller reason to celebrate that Burton – Cop Out went down to fourth, but added $9.1 million to a running total of $32.4 million, making it his highest earner. Congrats, Kev! Rounding out the top five was Avatar, sinking faster now its 3D screens are being taken over by other releases. Still, it made $7.7 million and is now over $720 million in America alone.
Elsewhere in the charts, horror remake The Crazies saw a big drop down to sixth place, Percy Jackson And The Olympians held on in the middle of the chart, while Valentine’s Day, Crazy Hear****t and Dear John lingered at the bottom.