'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.

Spartacus Battles Cancer

Lead Spartacus: Blood and Sand star Andy Whitfield has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, postponing production of the second season of the popular Starz series.  The disease was apparently caught early, and Whitfield is currently receiving treatment in New Zealand with a good prognosis.

The first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand is currently airing, telling the story of Spartacus' first months fighting in the arena.  The first season finale airing on April 16th.  The show has been receiving strong ratings and critical reviews, with many people comparing it to the theatrical feature '300' with its stylized fight sequences and digital blood.

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'Hurt Locker' Brings The Pain To 'Avatar'

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards happened tonight.  The beginning was incredibly awkward, with the ten nominees for Best Actor and Actress lined up on stage, trying not to fidget as they were announced and the roles they were nominated for listed.  It looked a bit like a beauty pageant where everyone knows the winner has already been determined.

Next up was Neil Patrick Harris, finally squashing all those "straight" rumors with a musical number performed while dressed in an insanely flashy tuxedo.  Finally, after all that, hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were introduced, flying down from the heavens to grace us with a good old fashioned vaudeville act throughout the night.

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'Wonderland' Apparently Full of Money

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland blew away already high expectations, coming in with a total of $116 million domestically in its opening weekend and $210 million worldwide.  It came in as the sixth highest grossing opening weekend of all time, and easily took the record for largest opening weekend in the first quarter of the year.  Given its family-friendly nature, broadly popular subject matter, strong marketing, 3-D "wow" factor and Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's star power, the film should hold over well in the weekends to come, at least until such time as its 3-D screens are taken away for other, newer, films.

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What Will 'Alice' Do?

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland opens this weekend, and will undoubtedly have a ripple effect on the box office. While the film has only received middling reviews so far (average 55% Tomatometer rating, 61% from the top critics and a 53 from Metacritic), it's riding a huge wave of hype and is the first big 3-D picture since Avatar came out in December.

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