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MAD MONEY
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ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Alice had a huge opening weekend, raking in $116.1 million domestically at the box office on 7,400 screens at 3,728 sites--making it the highest grossing weekend on record for the month of March. It marked Tim Burton’s highest opening weekend to date and Johnny Depp’s second highest behind the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. This film marked Depp and Burton’s seventh collaboration and by far their most profitable. An estimated 70% or $80 million dollars of the opening weekend gross came courtesy of 3D and bested Avatar’s $55 million dollar 3D haul making Alice the biggest 3D opening of all time. It is also fair to note that Alice opened 213 more 3D screens than Avatar, which certainly helped. The power of IMAX also boosted the Alice grosses and recorded $11.9 million at 188 sites exceeding Avatar which grossed $9.5 million at 178 sites. Many factors went into the success such as the star power of Depp, fans of Burton, the literary pedigree, the ever-strengthening of 3D and the marketing campaign work of Disney. Alice grossed $62.7 million on the second weekend, marking a 46 percent drop.
The film held on to the top spot at the box office for three weeks in a row and stayed in the top ten for eight weeks. It is now the highest grossing film ever released in March and has to grossed a total of $330.8 million domestically and $629.5 foreign for a combined worldwide total of $960.4 million.
THE LAST SONG
With a screenplay by Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook, this Miley Cyrus vehicle opened on a Wednesday to get a jump start on Easter weekend. It made $5.1 million on approximately 3,300 screens at 2,673 theaters for the first day gross. The film was her attempt to break away from the Hannah Montana franchise and try her hand at a more dramatic role. Overall the film made a solid $25 million for the first weekend. The audience polled was 80% female and many of them in the younger demographic, which was fully expected. The film dropped 38% in the second weekend to a gross of $9.8 million and stayed in the top ten for four weeks. The current gross is $60.4 million domestically, which is very solid. Other films based on Sparks books have grossed in the mid range including Message in a Bottle ($52), Nights in Rodanthe ($41) and A Walk to Remember ($41). While The Notebook and Dear John both grossed $81 and $80 million respectively. The Last Song had a reported budget of $20 million, so it should still be a profitable film for Buena Vista and a successful transition to adult roles for Miley Cyrus.
(May 12, 2010) - Comments (26)
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