Alice rules the box office

Proving that he wasn’t mad as a hatter for creating his own new version of the well-heeled Alice In Wonderland tale, Tim Burton’s new flick went straight to the top of the box office this weekend.

Earning itself a staggering $116m in box office kerchings, Alice became the most successful March debut ever – and beat other 3D pic Avatar ’s opening weekend haul of $77m.

It’s also a career best opening weekend for Burton, with Alice doubling Charlie And The Chocolate Factory ’s initial takings of $56m.

The competition didn’t have a chance, with second place going to crime thriller Brooklyn’s Finest (below), which took a measly $13.5m in comparison.

Last week’s box office champ Shutter Island wasn’t far behind, nabbing $13.3m, while Kevin Smith’s Cop Out took fourth place (despite all the negative reviews) with $9.1m.

And Avatar clung on at fifth place with a further $7.7m, meaning it’s now taken a whopping $720m domestically in the US.

Good buzz helped The Crazies scare up another $7m in receipts, while Percy Jackson ’s not going down without a fight, sitting pretty in the seventh spot with another $5m.

Valentine’s Day also continues to spread the love, adding another $4m to its $106m haul (and very almost justifying Garry Marshall’s plans for a sequel, except not really).

Finally, Crazy Heart drew crowds ahead of Jeff Bridges’ Oscar win, taking $3.3m, and Dear John added another $2.8m to its pocket in tenth place.

Did you catch Alice this weekend?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.