Box Office Charts: w/c 5 March 2010

The big news over the weekend was the tremendous success of Alice In Wonderland on both sides of the pond. Tim Burton's adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic made a remarkable $116m over its opening weekend in the US, giving it the highest three-day opening in movie history. In the UK, Alice has the biggest ever opening for a 3D movie (beating Avatar's £8.5m with its £10.5m), became Tim Burton's biggest UK debut, and March's highest-grossing opening ever.

The question on everyone's lips now is: why? Was it the combination of popular source material, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp? Or was the 3D itself a massive draw, as everyone thrilled by Avatar's visuals made a special effort to see something else in 3D? And if so, did they go away disappointed because Alice wasn't filmed in 3D like James Cameron's epic, it just had the third dimension bolted on in post-production? If anyone reading has seen the movie... tell me, what did you think? Also, a quick reminder that there's still time to vote in my Tim Burton poll to find his most popular movie.

US TOP 10

1. (-) Alice In Wonderland - $116,300,000
2. (-) Brooklyn's Finest - $13,500,000
3. (1) Shutter Island - $13,300,000
4. (2) Cop Out - $9,145,000
5. (4) Avatar -$7,700,000
6. (3) The Crazies - $7,016,000
7. (5) Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief - $5,100,000
8. (6) Valentine's Day - $4,270,000
9. (10) Crazy Heart - $3,350,000
10. (7) Dear John - $2,850,000

UK TOP 10

1. (-) Alice In Wonderland - £10,555,220
2. (1) Avatar - £908,049
3. (3) The Crazies - £673,551
4. (2) The Lovely Bones - £661,595
5. (4) The Princess And The Frog - £381,760
6. (8) From Paris With Love - £374,620
7. (5) Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief - £369,938
8. (7) Leap Year - £364,875
9. (6) Valentine's Day - £296,561
10. (9) A Single Man - £219,243