In spite praising reviews, Green Zone failed to usurp Alice In Wonderland at the box office this weekend. Tim Burton managed to cover the $200 million budget in only the second weekend, as his movie grossed another $62 million, bringing the total to $208.6 million. Recall the slew of opening weekend records it garnered last weekend.

Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone was the weekend’s runner-up bringing in only $14.5 million, as most of the weekend cash-flow went to Alice. It lead a list of sub-par debuts, ahead of She’s Out Of My League and Remember Me.

Fox Searchlight’s Our Family Wedding also debuted this weekend in sixth position.

Avatar remained in the top 10, bringing in an additional $6.6 million in its 13th week, despite a poor showing at the Oscars last Sunday. This brings the total to $730 million.

Check out the top 10: (movie- weekend; total)

1. Alice In Wonderland- $62,000,000; $208,625,000

2. Green Zone- $14,535,000; $14,535,000 (debut)

3. She’s Out Of My League- $9,600,000; $9,600,000 (debut)

4. Remember Me- $8,300,000; $8,300,000 (debut)

5. Shutter Island- $8,140,000; $108,008,000

6. Our Family Wedding- $7,600,000; $7,600,000 (debut)

7. Avatar- $6,600,000; $$730,344,000

8. Brooklyn’s Finest- $4,290,000; $21,351,000

9. Cop Out- $4,230,000; $39,442,000

10. The Crazies- $3,650,000; $33,358,000

What is your favorite movie on the list? Have you seen Alice In Wonderland?

Coming Soon reports that James Cameron is most definitely planning a release of his Oscar-winning Titanic in 3D. Here’s what Cameron had to say about the release date:

We’re targeting spring of 2012 for the release (of a 3D version of ‘Titanic’), which is the 100 year anniversary of the sailing of the ship.

Cameron was also asked about the possibility of an Avatar re-release in 3D this upcoming fall:

We’re not officially announcing it right now but I’m hoping for fall. The wildcard is that we might be re-releasing the movie this fall. It’s kind of gotten stomped out (in theaters) because of ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ The word we’re getting back from exhibitors is we probably left a couple of hundred million dollars on the table as a result. The question is the appetite still going to be there after the summer glut of movies. We’re going to assess that. We’re talking about maybe adding in additional footage and doing something creative.”

Avatar has recently passed the $2.6 billion mark in theaters worldwide, and looks poised to earn even more. To read the entire interview with James Cameron, head over to USA Today.

Which re-release are you looking forward to the most? Avatar or Titanic?

It’s time to finally end this sucker. With the Academy Awards this weekend after a month filled with coverage, who will come out on top? Read the full story

With the expansion to ten Best Picture nominees, many thought that “anything has a shot now!” But that is, of course, horrifically incorrect seeing as how the still-five-nominees-Best Director category essentially reveals what the “real” Best Picture nominees are. Read the full story

Speaking to fan site TheOneRing.net (via /Film), The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro confirmed that there have been preliminary discussions of doing the two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s book in 3D. With the massive success of Avatar and with (seemingly) every tentpole film getting the third dimension, there were rumors of this film’s conversion. For a while it was discussed, then denied, and now del Toro says he’s just updating everyone that it’s being considered. The quote is as follows:

I wouldn’t read much on it just yet, but now, after all this time, after AVATAR doing the Box Office it did, we have had enquires from above about The Hobbit being in 3-D.

No impositions or heavy leaning. Just enquires. Just fulfilling my promise to let you all know if discussions ever started.

Cheers

GDT

At the very least, it’s nice to see he’s updating all of the curious fans as to the status of the film, as it’s almost a way of, if not letting fans make the big decision, receiving some of their input and taking it into consideration. I’m admittedly very excited for The Hobbit as I thought the Lord of the Rings trilogy taken as a whole was one of the best film’s of the previous decade.

With that in mind, I want to stay optimistic about the film, because, being very excited, I wouldn’t want to dampen that. I trust the people behind the film to deliver a good 3D experience and not do something like Alice in Wonderland which looks admittedly awful in terms of the way 3D is employed, as that was added in in post-production. Again, they’re smart guys working on this movie, so I have confidence in whatever path they may choose.

Would you want to see The Hobbit in 3D?

Sigourney Weaver announced on the French show Cinebuzz TV that she has spoken with Avatar director James Cameron about how her character could return for the sequel. The video is difficult to decipher as Weaver, who is fluent in French, conducts half of the interview in French and a French translator speaks over her when the actress is speaking in English. However, the actress suggests that her character, Dr. Grace Augustine, could return as a spirit inhabiting the sacred tree featured in the film. Weaver, in her human form, was one of the best parts about Avatar and I’m not sure how well she would work as a disembodied voice. Also, the unavoidable comparisons to Grandmother Willow won’t help shed the ‘Pocahontas in space’ criticisms. Read the full story

ACTION

If the films of the 1990s gave us reasons for the end of the world, the films of the 2000s took those reasons to their logical conclusion. We were shown what the end of the world will look like, and shown who’d be there when the dust settled. Last fall it was a father (Viggo Mortenson) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and there most precious resource was a gun. In January, it was Denzel Washington and his most precious resource was a book. That and a Samurai sword.

The days of apocalyptic glimpses are far behind us (remember 1992’s Terminator 2 and its inspired, momentary glances forward?). These days, terminators are fought 20 years from now in the middle of human extermination and heroes like John Connor have to deal with the poor decision-making of their ignorant leaders, yelling cynical, culturally-relevant lines like “If we stay the course, we’re dead! We’re all dead!”

The 1990s’ curious/adventurous predictions of future technology and its ability to destroy the world were replaced with films (at the tail end of the 1990s and throughout the 2000s) so technologically advanced that they mirrored the technology responsible for said imagined disasters. Films like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings and Avatar employed computers to develop creatures that, while not quite photo-realistic, appear very much alive. Explosions occur right in front of our eyes, yet exist only inside the mind of a device.

Read the full story

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards took place tonight in London. It was a great night for The Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow as well as a good precursor to the Oscars (as Slumdog Millionaire won the same awards last year). Check out the full list below. Read the full story

The fourth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio has proven to be their best. The duo have not only beat out 2002’s Gangs Of New York, 2004’s The Aviator, and 2006’s The Departed, but also their personal record. The Departed was previously Scorsese’s best with $26.8M, while Leo’s was $30M for Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can. We can all forget about that as Shutter Island made $40.2M this weekend. This puts it in the Top 20 R-rated openings of all-time as well as in the Top 10 February openings of all-time. Read the full story

When it comes to the Oscars, the movie-going hoi polloi tends to segregate themselves into separate camps: some follow movie news religiously, eagerly awaiting the ceremony’s winners and losers, others just leave the ceremony on in the background because they can’t find anything to watch, while others can’t be bothered at all. To cater to those latter two camps who aren’t a lock for the ceremony’s ratings, the Academy has trimmed much fat from the show in order to make it a leaner, more engaging watch. Thus, as most of you may know, the crowned and coveted Best Picture category added five more notches to its belt of nominations, in hopes of widening the show’s audience (Note the nominations for The Blind Side and District 9 as exhibits A and B). Read the full story