'Alice' Shrinks Competition's Grosses

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's latest collaboration, Alice In Wonderland held onto the top spot for a second weekend, dropping 47% to bring in still a stellar $62 million.  With $208 million so far, 'Wonderland' is on track to be Tim Burton's highest grossing movie to date.

Matt Damon's third film with director Paul Greengrass, The Green Zone, opened in second place with $14.5 million.  With a $100 million budget, Universal Studios is not likely to earn back its investment during the film's run at the box office.

Paramount's She's Out of My League, with a $20 million budget, came in third place, with $9.6 million.  In fourth was Remember Me (with a $16 million budget). Both films should have no problem becoming profitable for their studios.

Finally, in fifth place was Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, with $108 million gross to date, the additional $8 million from its third weekend will further help Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio's bankability going forward.

Competition 'Shutter'ed Out Again

Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island blocked newcomers Cop Out and The Crazies from the top spot at the box office this past weekend.  Shutter Island rode a wave of good word of mouth, dropping a respectable 46% in the face of bad weather on the Eastern portion of the continent to a tally of $22.2 million in its second weekend.  The film has earned $75 million to date.

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Valentine's Day Massacres Competition

Warner Bros. Valentine's Day opened this Valentine's Day weekend, and destroyed the competition with a whopping $66.9 million gross over the four day President's Day weekend in the US (and Family Day weekend in many parts of Canada).

Family-friendly Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief coming in second at $38.75 million.  If it can hold over well in its second weekend, expect more Percy Jackson books to be converted to films in the near future.

Universal's The Wolfman starring Benicio Del Toro came in third place, grossing $36.5 million.  It'll have a tough time recouping its estimated $150 million production cost.  The film also hasn't scored well on audience exit polls, which probably explains why it sat on Universal's shelf for 17 months before being released.

Avatar came in a strong fourth place in its 9th weekend with $30 million over the four days, bringing it's cumulative domestic gross to $667 million and a whopping $2.35 billion worldwide. 

Last week's number one film, Dear John, fell to fifth place with $18.8 million, bringing it's domestic total to $56.7 million.

Overall the weekend was the strongest President's Day weekend in history, and Sunday was the highest grossing Valentine's Day of all time.

Expect Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island to be the big draw this coming weekend.  The R-rated picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio can be expected to bring in around $35 million.