'Alice' on track to record breaking weekend

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, Alice in Wonderland, in the words of Variety, "scored mega numbers on Friday" and "is on track to score one of the biggest weekend openings of all time for the January-March stretch, as well as the biggest debut of 2010." Its boxoffice take on Friday was almost 10 times that of the second placing film!

Here is the link to the entire article: 'Alice' tops box office with $41 million. However, Variety's site isn't allowing everyone who isn't a subscriber to access its articles, so you may not be able to read it.  

[David]

Let's light candles and hope that in a year or two we'll read that kind of news RE the DS film!

[jimbo]

$116 million in 3 days-I like it when people just ignore the critics.

http://www.1010wins.com/Disney-s--Alice-in-Wonderland--Opens-with--116-3-M/6514779

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Some critics (like the two on At The Movies) have recommended Alice - even praising much of it, particularly Depp. And actually, bringing in $116.1 million domestically is only part of the story because the worldwide boxoffice is $310 million. And considering that the movie was budgeted at $200 million, that means that in three days it's already made back what it cost to make as well as much, if not all, of its promotion costs. And also, Alice blew away the movies that had previously held the March (300, which brought in $70.9 million in it's opening weekend back in '07) and Spring (Fast and Furious, which brought in $71 million) opening weekend records.

I suspect Disney and Burton are laughing off all of the bad reviews/comments. And while publications like Variety predicted "wondrous early B.O. numbers," I doubt even they foresaw numbers this huge.  

Let's light candles and hope that in a year or two we'll read that kind of news RE the DS film!

Yes, it would be nice if the Depp/DS film was also able to smash records but, quite honestly, given that DS probably won't appeal to the same wide demographics as any of those three films, I'd be quite happy just to see it bring in respectable numbers for its opening weekend and for it to ultimately make a profit. That way there would be the possibility of a franchise.  

[David]

I seem to recall that the 91 DS pilot pulled in. 35 million viewers, which no one expected.
Ya never know!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Actually, it attracted 23.6 million viewers (a 14.6 rating and a 23 share):



Though that was still quite good - especially by today's standards. But what was best was that it won the entire night's highest 18-49 demographic rating. Though, of course, those people are 37-68 now (or possibly even dead ) - and, as I've mentioned in other topics, for the most part the movie industry could care less about anyone over 50, and only slightly more so those 35-49 (they lust after 18-34 and also 12-17 - groups that largely comprise people who weren't even born or were too young when the '91 series was on). The industry will still accept our money - but for the Depp/DS film to be a big hit, it has to appeal to whole new audience...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Check out: Weekend Report: Moviegoers Mad About ‘Alice’ to learn about a few more records the film set and how it places in the careers of Burton and Depp.

One thing that's probably not surprising was that the basic gender and age demographics came in at 55% female and 54% under 25. Let's hope that the Depp/DS film can also appeal to a similar percentage of the under 25 age demographic.

[madscntst]

Let's hope that the Depp/DS film can also appeal to a similar percentage of the under 25 age demographic.

I don't think that is going to be possible.  Alice is rated PG and is very appealing to kids and tweens and teens- that helps a lot with the box office right there.  (Also, I think that kids don't care about reviews).  DS would probably be rated at minimum PG-13, and they may even go with an R rating, which is what Sweeney Todd and Sleepy Hollow had.  That will certainly diminish the numbers, and diminish the younger audience (though I am hoping that older teens and college kids, still under 25, will be into it).  I guess all I'm saying that I think that Alice is a different kind of movie with different goals than DS will be.  I am guessing that DS will have a much smaller budget, too, so it won't need to be a blockbuster to be successful.

I liked Alice a lot more than I thought I would, given the mixed reviews it got.  I don't feel it's one of Burton's strongest films, but it was very entertaining.  

Cathy

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There were people who were sure that, as soon as word of mouth spread after the weekend, Alice would no longer be trouncing its competition. Well, with figures like these so far, I wonder what they're saying now? (Though I suspect not many, if any of them are admitting they were wrong because their kind rarely ever does.  )

Day  #1 Movie  Boxoffice    #2 Movie        Boxoffice
===  ========  =========    ========        =========
Mon   Alice    $9,008,430   Shutter Island  $1,011,425
Tue   Alice    $7,976,108   Shutter Island  $1,101,674
Wed   Alice    $6,772,798   Shutter Island    $970,211

Normally a movie is lucky to amass any one of those Alice grosses for the entire Monday through Friday period, not just for one day.


And changing reels slightly, you make some interesting points madscntst and I'd love to see if a discussion might going about them. But I want to have that discussion in the Depp/DS topic rather than here. I just haven't gotten the chance to gather my thought and post over there yet. But soon...  

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Not that anyone is predicting it to ultimately amass anything like Avatar's gross, but I was shocked to see that Alice has actually beaten Avatar''s Friday–Thursday Opening Week total:

Alice - $146,625,356

Avatar - $137,094,001

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Check out: Weekend Report: ‘Alice’ Stays Green, ‘Green Zone’ Opens in Red

Among the most interesting points:

• This weekend's gross for Alice was over $20 million more than the grosses of all four new wide releases combined!

• Alice's $62.7 million was good for sixth place among the all time highest-grossing second weekends, and it was the biggest outside of the summer and holiday seasons.

• With a cumulative gross of $209.4 million (so far), Alice has passed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to become Burton and Depp's highest-grossing collaboration.

• And it is well on its way to passing Batman as Burton's top-grossing movie ever.

[Gothick]

Given Depp's outlandish Mad Hatter make-up which keeps getting shoved in my face on every visible surface (thank you, Disney) I'm wondering whether Depp will play a dual role in Depp Shadows, portraying both Barnabas AND Julia.

He certainly was devastatingly feminine in that one cameo in Before night falls--Depp would make a minx-like, alluring, deadly Angelique.

G.

[Taeylor Collins]

LOL GOTHICK!  Great to hear Alice is doing so well! :0)

[Zahir]

Here is my review:  http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/2010/03/alice-in-wonderland-review.html

An excerpt:

Well, to start with, it is a good movie. Entertaining, a visual feast, with a good story and interesting characters brought to life by an excellent cast. Much has been made in discussions I've read about Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen (essentially based on the Queen of Hearts) and Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter. Both deserve great praise, not least because they make such bizarre characters real. Carter's Queen is a borderline sociopath, a lonely brat with violent tendencies for whom maturity has meant greater sophistication but no greater wisdom. Depp's Hatter on the other hand seems like an already unstable victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, one with an intense sense of whimsy now coupled with a fierce belief in right and wrong (and very, very cunning)...

...Wonderland, after all, is a place of madness. The political struggle in this story seems to be a choice between forms of insanity--Don Qixote or Hannibal Lecter.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If Friday's figures are any indication, it's looking like Alice may hold onto the top weekend spot for the third week in a row:

1) Alice - $9,900,000

2) The Bounty Hunter - $7,650,000

3) Diary Of A Wimpy Kid - $7,400,000

4) Repo Men - $2,200,000


And I haven't forgotten about the post I want to make in the Depp/DS film topic. There are just a few things I want to do first (like rewatch Sleepy Hollow) and I plan to do them this weekend...