Thursday, May 27, 2010

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland crosses $1 billion worldwide.

As of yesterday, Disney's Alice in Wonderland is the 6th-biggest global grosser of all-time. At just over $1 billion in worldwide revenue, film is the third-biggest non-sequel grosser of all-time, behind only the James Cameron double-whammy (Titanic and Avatar). As is regularly the case these days, the film made around 67% of its cash ($667.7 million) from overseas dollars, with 'just' $332.4 million coming from domestic ticket sales. It is $1.8 million away from overtaking The Dark Knight on the all-time list, and $66 million away from Disney's biggest grosser, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It's a bit of a slog for a film that comes out on DVD/Blu Ray next week, but the film is a mere $119 million away from surpassing Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as the third-biggest film of all time. Not bad for a film that many expected to crash after its (record-setting) opening weekend due to poor reviews and lousy pre-release buzz.

In an obvious sign that overseas numbers are growing exponentially more important than domestic dollars, the film's $332 million US take puts it just 19th on the all-time list in America (between Forest Gump and Spider-Man 3). This also makes Johnny Depp the first actor to headline two respective billion-dollar pictures. Unfortunately, it's astounding success means that studios will continue to convert tentpoles into 3D after production (never mind that a Tim Burton-directed and Johnny Depp-starring Alice in Wonderland would have made a bundle in 1D). It also insures that director Tim Burton is all-but destined to spend the next act of his career churning out big-budget adaptations of one candy-colored fantasy story after another. Coming soon - Tim Burton's Candy Land, with Johnny Depp as Lord Licorace and Helen Bonham Carter as Queen Frostine.

Scott Mendelson

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