Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland blew away all expectations by earning a stunning $116.3 million, totally smashing the previous March debut record of $70.9 million set by Zack Snyder’s 300.  Alice earned 70% of its enormous take from its 3-D screens, and its gargantuan debut means that the rush to extra-dimensional filmmaking will pick up even more momentum (see “Green Lantern Movie in 3-D”).

The audience for Alice skewed slightly female (55%) and young (54% under 25).   The “Disney” imprimatur helped attract parents and their children, who made up 39% of the audience, but the film also proved attractive to couples, who made up 36% of the crowd.  Alice, which starred Johnny Depp, posted the biggest opening ever for a non-sequel and set an IMAX record, earning $11.9 million from 188 locations thanks to a mind-blowing average of $63,137 per screen.

Second place is still in doubt at this time with a slight edge apparently going to Antoine Fuqua’s cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest, which played well to urban audiences and appears to be a hair’s breath ahead of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, which fell just 41% in its third frame.  Kevin Smith’s Cop Out dropped 49.8% and finished fourth with an estimated $9.1 million.  Avatar took its biggest hit yet, a 44% decline resulting from the loss of 3-D and IMAX screens to Alice.  But the resilient science fiction saga still finished fifth and added another $7.7 million to its enormous domestic total, which is now north of $720 million.

The wicked smart horror remake The Crazies fell 56% in its second weekend, but still brought in an estimated $7 million and finished sixth, while Percy Jackson and the Olympians slipped by 46.8% and finished seventh with an estimated $5.1 million.

Buoyed by Alice’s tremendous debut the weekend box office was up a potent 87% over the same frame last year when Watchmen debuted.