Business as usual at the nation's box office as Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' continued its reign at number one for a third consecutive weekend, earning $34.5 million. However, the race for number two found 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' cuffing the glam pairing of Jennifer Aniston & Gerard Butler in 'The Bounty Hunter.'
The box office reign of Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" extended into a third weekend as the nation's number one film. The visually arresting 3D reworking of the Lewis Carroll fantasy starring Johnny Depp tallied another $34.5 million to raise its North American cume to $265.8M and climbing. This marks the first time a Disney film has enjoyed a three weekend run since "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" in 2006.
With "Alice" still leading the charge, that left several newcomers to fight it out for second place with some interesting results.
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Even with a one-two punch of media interest and an aggressive marketing campaign, the on-screen coupling of Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler may ultimately prove to be a bit of a disappointment. Leave it to the family comedy "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" to edge "The Bounty Hunter." Based on Jeff Kinney's best selling graphic novels, "Wimpy Kid" delivered a solid opening with $21.8 million from 3,077 playgrounds. (Word is Fox was so confident in the project's success, it already has put a sequel into motion.) As for Aniston and Butler, despite receiving some harsh reviews, still pulled in $21 million from 3,074 locations for third place.
Rounding out the rest of the Weekend Final Five: Universal's box office drought continued with yet another disappointing bow as "Repo Men" failed to court audience favor. The futuristic actioner starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker earned fourth place with $6.2 million from 2,521 sites. (Uni's attempt to mine the box office power of Matt Damon and "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass with the "Green Zone," dropped out of the the top five in its second weekend, earning $5.9 million to bring its total up to a lackluster $24.7M.) And, wrapping it up with a fifth place rating was "She's Out of My League," which scored $6 million for an overall total of $19.9M.
Checking in on one high profile indie film, the limited bow of "The Runaways" starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning was greeted by a mixed critical response. Based on the meteoric rise of the influential all-girl rock band, the film enjoyed a promising debut with $803,000 from 244 theaters, generating a $3,291 screen average. Will Stewart be the one to prove she can open a film outside of "The Twilight Saga?" Find out when "The Runaways" expands into its national release on April 9.
Those Angelenos seeking to discover more on the Weekend Final Five should click on Fandango for local theater and ticket information.
Keep reading the Personalities page on Examiner.com for the latest movie reviews & box office updates, plus celebrity & industry news.
Early reaction to "How to Train Your Dragon" has compared the Dreamworks Animation 3D film to Pixar's best efforts.
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