Audiences followed Tim Burton and Johnny Depp down the rabbit hole this weekend as Alice in Wonderland scored the sixth largest debut of all time, shattering box office records for 3-D and IMAX along the way.
Burton's visual buffet opened to $116.3 million, according to studio estimates from box office firm Hollywood.com.
The debut was nearly $40 million more than analysts predicted and gave the film the largest debut ever for a non-sequel, beating out Spider-Man, if estimates hold.
The film also smashed records set just a few weeks ago by Avatar, including largest debut on IMAX.
Wonderland raked in $11.9 million on IMAX, surpassing Avatar's $9.5 million. IMAX president and CEO Greg Foster says that Wonderland is enjoying a "halo effect" from James Cameron's computer-generated smash, which has done $720 million.
"I think people went into the theaters because of Avatar and saw 3-D and IMAX for the first time," Foster says. "That got them excited about the experience, and Alice in Wonderland was the next big movie to come along."
Big is an understatement. The movie took in another $94 million worldwide, and still hasn't opened in 60% of Disney's foreign markets.
"Tim and Johnny have always been great together, but I don't think anyone saw this coming," says Chuck Viane, distribution chief for Disney. "But it was clear early on people were responding to the marketing."
While critics were mixed — 53% of them recommended the movie, according to RottenTomatoes.com — Disney's marketing focused on teens, who have found 3-D to be an irresistible bug light.
"We got some people who read the book," Viane says. "But you obviously had a lot of people who just had to see what it looked like."
The film gave the industry a boost in a month when movies typically stagger. Ticket sales surged 74% over last weekend.
The cop drama Brooklyn's Finest held its own with a $13.5 million opening, about $2 million more than expected, good for second place.
Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island was third with $13.3 million, bringing its total to $95.8 million after three weeks.
The Bruce Willis comedy Cop Out was fourth with $9.1 million, followed by Avatar with $7.7 million. After three months on screen, Avatar has racked up $720.2 million and has yet to drop out of the top five. Worldwide, it has done $2.6 billion, another record.
Source: USA Today
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