“Alice in Wonderland” Has Record-Breaking Opening Weekend

Entertainment Weekly reports that Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland drew almost $40 million in box office revenue on Friday, setting the stage for what will likely have been a $100 million (or more) weekend. The film will definitely beat the previous record for this weekend of the year — $70 million, set by 300 in 2006.

The film is notable as Burton’s first major 3D release. Despite the backlash from filmgoing traditionalists, it looks like 3D is drawing audiences. (Also notable – some scenes were simply filmed in 2D and converted to 3D later, which some argue is not true 3D.)

Last year, James Cameron’s Avatar shattered all previous box office records to become the highest-earning film of all time by earning nearly $2 billion. 3D technology was one of Avatar’s biggest draws. Now Alice’s performance indicates that Avatar’s success wasn’t totally an anomaly for 3D movies.

Both films were also heavily promoted with social media. Avatar’s director and stars appeared in a webcast Q&A hosted by Facebook (Facebook) and MTV. Alice had a similar event which drew 400,000 viewers on MySpace.

Unlike Avatar, Alice has received mostly lukewarm critical responses. We’ll have to keep our ears to the ground to see if the circulation of critics’ negative reviews and mediocre buzz on Twitter (Twitter), Facebook and blogs cause a big dip in ticket sales next weekend.

Credit: Mashable

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