Alice is now the New Ruler of 3D Box Office

Earned a whopping $116.1 million in its three opening days, Tim Burton’s PG-rated revisionist take on the classic "Alice in Wonderland" easily became the biggest opening weekend for a 3-D film ever. The number surprisingly surpassed the forecasts that ranged between $65 million-$75 million and absolutely gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film "Avatar." The film that was made for $200 million also set a record for films opening in March, bested current best debut by "300" which earned $70.9 million in 2007. The opening frame is sixth biggest ever, squeezing between Shrek the Third's $121.6 million and Spider-Man's $114.8 million. Both of those films debuted in May, which is usually the month for big first weekends. The film also gives main star Johnny Depp three films in the top ten biggest openers ever list (“Pirates’ Dead Man's Chest” - $135.6 million opening, “Pirates’ At World's End” - $114.7 million opening, and now “Alice”), and biggest opening ever for Tim Burton, easily beating his “Planet of the Apes,” which reached $68.5 million in 2001. Before the weekend, both “Alice” and “Avatar” were competed over the available 3-D ready screens; screens outfitted for 3-D are rapidly rising, but still amount to fewer than 4,000 in the U.S. and Canada. And before "Alice" hit the cinemas, many of those screens were still dedicated to the 3D behemoth, "Avatar," which is up for nine Academy Awards on Sunday, including best picture which finally goes to “The Hurt Locker”. "This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this very often." Though reviews were mostly respectfully negative, much of the film's draw was surely in teaming director Burton and his frequent collaborator, Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter. It also presented moviegoers with a 3-D updating of Lewis Carroll's beloved classic. "Alice" also played across 188 IMAX screens in North America and gave IMAX its best opening ever, with $11.9 million domestically. That beat the previous record of $9.5 million set by "Avatar." IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said the huge success of "Alice" was unexpected, but that "Avatar" would regain some of those IMAX screens, whether or not it wins best picture. Worldwide, “Alice” went on to gross a worldwide total of $210 million thanks to simultaneous bows in 41 foreign territories.

The only other new film in wide release this weekend, the crime drama “Brooklyn's Finest”, also beating estimates but obviously with smaller number. Released in to only 1,936 venues in an interesting attempt at counter-programming, the film with a cast that includes Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere got off to a strong start, earning $13.5 million

Meanwhile, Paramount's psychological thriller "Shutter Island" moved into third place after two weekends in the top spot. It followed closely “Brooklyn” with $13.3 million and Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio had to make room for that other director-actor team but have upped their cume to an impressive $95.7M. Paramount likely will break the $100M mark on Thursday or Friday.

“Avatar” which gets the big rub as it loses all of its IMAX screens this weekend, fell 40,5% to $8.1M but still lifted its mammoth cume to $720.6M from North America. The film had never fallen by more than 31% before. The overseas drop was slightly better with the Pandora pic grossing an estimated $21.7M, off 40%, boosting the international tally to $1.88 billion. The worldwide take now stands at a towering $2.6 billion.

Below is the top 10 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release:

1. "Alice in Wonderland," Disney, $116,101,023, 3,728 locations, $31,143 average, $116,101,023, one week.

2. "Brooklyn's Finest," Overture, $13,350,299, 1,936 locations, $6,896 average, $13,350,299, one week.

3. "Shutter Island," Paramount, $13,225,411, 3,178 locations, $4,162 average, $95,750,005, three weeks.

4. "Cop Out," Warner Bros., $9,289,311, 3,150 locations, $2,949 average, $32,504,610, two weeks.

5. "Avatar," Fox, $8,118,102, 2,163 locations, $3,753 average, $720,607,444, 12 weeks.

6. "The Crazies," Overture, $7,078,851, 2,479 locations, $2,856 average, $27,472,164, two weeks.

7. "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," Fox, $5,124,623, 2,994 locations, $1,712 average, $78,057,749, four weeks.

8. "Valentine's Day," Warner Bros., $4,154,110, 3,040 locations, $1,366 average, $106,303,870, four weeks.

9. "Crazy Heart," Fox Searchlight, $3,312,591, 1,274 locations, $2,600 average, $29,532,002, 12 weeks.

10. "Dear John," Sony Screen Gems, $2,782,079, 2,496 locations, $1,115 average, $76,626,086, five weeks.