Box Office - Score Another Big Win for 'Wonderland'

Ten days for Alice in Wonderland and almost $210 million. That's not Avatar money, although it got to this point in exactly as long.

In fact, let's roll Avatar into this discussion for a second: Since November, six films - New Moon, The Blind Side, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Alice - have accounted for just under $2 billion. Sure, Avatar is roughly 35% of that all by itself, but last year was the first to make over $10 billion, and these six movies have nearly outgrossed the record totals for February, March, and April - all from 2009 - all by themselves. For Alice, this kind of money is a little unexpected. I think a lot of people would have put it over $200 million...just not in a week-and-a-half. There's still plenty to make, too. This has to get to $300 million. It's heading toward $250 million in the next week and then it'll slow down a little.

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Box Office - More Big Money for 'Alice in Wonderland'

Another big number for Alice in Wonderland as the 3-D Tim Burton flick racked up $17 million on Friday to dwarf all its opposition. Given that the film started so unbelievably well last weekend - $116 million - the fact that it will probably drop anywhere from 50 - 60% but no more is also rather remarkable. That's a fairly standard drop, but you might have expected more from a movie that looked like an aberration last week.

Still, it should wind up around $50 million this weekend, maybe a little less, despite four new releases arriving in theaters this weekend. Of those, Matt Damon's Green Zone appears to be the only one that will make it past $15 million. For Universal, that's nothing to sing about, since the film reportedly came in over schedule and over budget. And a movie with a $100 million price tag just isn't going to survive long with a debut short of $30 million. Third place will be up in the air, as Rob Pattinson's Remember Me and the R-rated comedy She's Out of My League each made within $3.3 and $3.5 million, according to the early estimates. The actual numbers could even flip by the time the weekend is through, but it shows how close a race it will be and makes you wonder where Team Edward is. Really, Pattinson fans, New Moon does $77 million in a day and you can't do one-fourth of that in three days for that guy you scream over? You're no kind of fan at all.

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Movie Review - 'Green Zone'

Green Zone Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan Gleeson Directed by Paul Greengrass Rated R

Whether it's a slightly flawed movie or just a victim of unique circumstance, Green Zone just never becomes what it should. If this were the first film to dramatize the events in Iraq over the past seven years, then it's entirely possible this film would get under our skin a little more. But less than a week after The Hurt Locker won the Academy Award, Green Zone almost feels like an empty exercise, somewhat clumsily combining the standards of a taut action movie with the heavier elements of a war critique. It's still a pretty good movie, just one that leaves you before you finish the drive home. Part of that is that it's a search for nothing. Green Zone tackles a mission to find Weapons of Mass Destruction, the great foreign policy MacGuffin. Hard to slap an audience-pleasing finish on that movie. To turn that ending on its head, Green Zone gives us Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon), a soldier just following orders until he realizes that the orders are the problem. After three visits to supposed WMD sites come up empty, Miller begins to question the intelligence. His suspicions are more or less confirmed by a Wall Street Journal reporter (Amy Ryan) and a CIA agent (Brendan Gleeson), both of home have come to immediately question the company line. On the other side, there's the Defense Department's Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), whose job is obfuscation. The less the troops on the ground know, the better Poundstone is doing his job. The less they question, even better.

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Fearless Forecast - A Return Visit to 'Wonderland'

There will be a logjam at the box office this week, but not at the top. Instead, the race is probably for third place. Alice in Wonderland will cruise to an easy win, and it might even go three weekends as king of the mountain. Even if the film gives up 50% of its audience this weekend, that's still $58 million, and the daily reports have been pretty robust, so that could be the number to work with a week from now, when the race gets more interesting.

This weekend, it's a runaway. Green Zone isn't likely to do $50 million - but who thought Alice would bring in over $115 million? - so even if it's a surprise on the level of Shutter Island, it will be safely in Alice's rear-view mirror. The reviews are not that kind to Green Zone and I don't think Universal has done a great job marketing it as a must-see movie. It will still do OK, but anything north of $25 million would be a dream come true for the studio. I have my doubts it's playing in that arena, though, and $22 million might be the best-case scenario. I've seen as estimate as low as $18 million, but I'll give Matt Damon a bit more credibility with the audience, especially with the loose purse strings moviegoers are exercising these days.

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Matt Damon in Four New 'Green Zone' Clips

I was talking to someone the other day about Green Zone and he said it "looks like Jason Bourne in camo." Yeah, maybe. I think a lot of that is trailers and commercials not only say it's from the director two Bourne movies but are also edited to showcase the action.

Here are a few new clips that show off a slightly slower pace for Paul Greengrass and his star, Matt Damon, but the movie will still have to dodge those comparisons. There are, of course, far worse action movies to be compared to - most of them, in fact - but it's hard to blame Damon for wanting to work on this project with Greengrass and vice versa. I like the way Damon's playing his character, a soldier who begins to question the reliability of the intelligence he and his team are receiving in Iraq. There were, as it turns out, no WMDs for the WMD team to uncover.

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