'Alice in Wonderland' Tops $1 Billion Worldwide

Nobody saw it working out this way, but Alice in Wonderland has achieved what only five other films can claim - It's made a billion dollars.

There's no doubt 3-D helped it reach this goal, but that's true of Avatar, too. In fact, I wonder what Avatar would have made with equally priced tickets. However, I think when you compare it to The Dark Knight, you'd still have to give Alice the nod. After all, Alice has reached a billion in one-fourth the time.

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'Alice in Wonderland' DVD and Blu-Ray Details

Disney notoriously cut the theatrical release of Alice in Wonderland short to release the DVD early. Obviously, in retrospect, an extra month in theaters wouldn't have made much of a difference for Alice; it will be one of the top 20 movies in global box office history.

But June 4th is the date Disney has chosen for the DVD release, and that's about a month faster than the usual standard. We'll see a lot more of this because the studios are panicking over home video revenues. Exhibitors will have to find some way to combat what should be a flood of three-month release windows if more studios speed up the DVD and Blu-ray debuts. Here's the rundown of sepcial features on the Alice DVD and Blu-ray, courtesy of GenreAddict. You can pre-order it now at Amazon for $17 and $28, depending on your preference.

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3-D Leader RealD Coming to Wall Street?

We told you not that long ago about the climb in IMAX stock after Avatar broke all those box office records. Wall Street is reacting to movie technology. The Los Angeles Times reports that the privately held RealD will go public this summer.

While a company spokesman had no comment on the "rumors and speculation," it is believed that JP Morgan Chase and Piper Jaffray & Co. will handle the initial public offering, which is expected to happen by the end of June. The IPO "would seek to raise as much $1 billion, allowing its principal investors to cash out," writes the Times. "Shamrock Holdings, investment arm for the late Roy Disney, invested $50 million in the company, which launched in 2003."

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Box Office - 'Titans' Dominates on Friday

While the weekend won't be the stuff of legend, it's a pretty good launch for Warner Bros.' Clash of the Titans, the studio's first major 3-D project, even though it's of the retrofitted variety. Adding in the $3 million Titans drew on Thursday night, the film now stands at nearly $30 million after Friday.

Of course, it's not the sort of film you can see duplicating those efforts on Saturday and Sunday - because it's just not that great, particularly where a hiked-up 3-D ticket price is concerned - so it isn't likely to make another $60 million this weekend. It might do another $40 - $45 million, though, so a $70 million weekend isn't a radical estimate.

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Fearless Forecast - 'Titans' to Rule the Weekend

It's an atypical weekend at the box office in a lot of ways. To begin with, the Good Friday holiday will have a larger impact than most Fridays, there are two new movies expected to clear $20 million, and old movie that might flirt with $30 million, and another new release that could hit $60 million or more because it has some openings tonight.

That movie, of course, is Clash of the Titans, which isn't winning over any fans in the critical community. Actually, I think bad reviews could hurt this one, particularly because it's a remake. Older audiences generally don't like new versions of films they grew up with - and by "older audiences," I mean anyone over about the arbitrary Hollywood cut-off of 34 - and if the remake is getting bad reviews on top of that, it probably won't help matters. Still, they're just gravy, anyway. All Warner Bros. really cares about is 3-D ticket sales in that expanded 13 - 25 demo, and there should be plenty of those. Curiously, this is about the number I predicted for Alice in Wonderland, which, as we know, ratcheted it up a notch or two on opening weekend. I really don't think Titans can break $100 million, but I'll keep my mouth shut here in the age of 3-D.

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