'Alice in Wonderland' has a frabjous opening: $210 million

March 7, 2010 9:30 AM PT

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Ben Fritz at Company Town has the numbers on ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ Tim Burton’s quasi-sequel to the Lewis Carroll classic of children’s literature, and they’re huge...

Disney discovered an opening weekend in ‘Wonderland’ the likes of which had never been seen before, taking in an eye-popping $210.3 million around the world in its debut.

Director Tim Burton’s 3-D adaptation of the classic fairy tale, starring Johnny Depp, sold a studio-estimated $116.3 million worth of tickets Friday through Sunday in the U.S. and Canada. Even accounting for ticket-price inflation, that’s the biggest-ever opening in the first quarter of the year, easily beating the record of $83.8 million set by ‘The Passion of the Christ’ in 2004.

In the 40 foreign territories where it opened simultaneously, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ collected an additional $94 million. That’s also a record for the biggest foreign opening in the winter or spring, Disney said. The studio estimated that those countries represent about 60% of the movie’s international potential, with major markets such as France and Japan still to come.

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-- Ben Fritz

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