Theatergoers continued to follow Tim Burton’s Alice down the rabbit hole as Disney’s reconfigured Alice in Wonderland dropped only 47% in its second frame, earning an estimated $62 million and bringing its domestic total to a stellar $208.6 million.  The $300 million mark seems assured for this film, which soon pass 1989’s Batman ($251.2 million) to become Burton’s top-grossing film.  Of course Alice’s total has been inflated by higher ticket prices for the 3-D showings that have provided 70% of its revenue so far.  Even though it is quite possible that it will earn more than $350 million domestically, it is highly doubtful that Alice will match Batman’s 60 million admissions.

Meanwhile audiences continued to avoid Middle East war movies.  Director Paul Greengrass’ attempt to replicate his Bourne Ultimatum success by casting Matt Damon in an Iraq War movie met with only mediocre success as The Green Zone earned just $14.5 million in its debut despite a major marketing campaign.  Produced at a cost of over $100 million, The Green Zone won’t make its money back at the box office.  The audience for the film was predominantly male (54%) and very old (in box office terms) with 67% over 30. 

The disappointing debut of The Green Zone couldn’t happen to a director with a worse style—the critics continue to lap up Greengrass’s abuse of the audience with shaky hand-held camerawork and extreme close-ups that undermine the often excellent performances that he is able to elicit from his actors, but maybe moviegoers have wised up (though its probably just their aversion to anything that smacks of the Iraq War).

Two other new films also suffered through mediocre bows.  The Judd Apatow-lite comedy She’s Out of My League earned just $9.6 million and finished in third place, just ahead of teen heartthrob Robert Patinson’s Remember Me, which brought in just $8.3 million.  While it’s true that Twilight may have made Patinson a star, it is not yet clear how much of the Twilight effect is transferable.  Remember Me appealed to the Twilight demographic—84% of the audience was female and 53% was under 25—just not enough of them.

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island dropped only 39% while earning $8.1 million and bringing its cumulative to $108 million.  James Cameron’s Avatar suffered the lowest decline in the top ten (19%) and added another $6.6 million to its gargantuan total. Kevin Smith’s Cop Out finished at number nine by grossing $4.2 million over the weekend.  The Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan cop comedy will likely finish in the $45-50 million range, which is more than the exemplary remake of The Crazies that came in 10th and will likely end up under $40 million domestically.

Overall the total grosses of the top ten films was up 53% from the same weekend last year when Race to Witch Mountain opened and up 27% from 2008 when Horton Hears a Who debuted.