'Alice,' 'Brooklyn's Finest' invited to box office tea party (HWD)

By Paul Dergarabedian

Recent R-rated domination of the box-office may take a bit of a trip down the rabbit hole as the PG-Rated and much anticipated big screen 3-D version of the Lewis Carroll classic "Alice in Wonderland" is set to cast a spell over the weekend's box-office derby.

The perfectly matched pair of star Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton will mark their seventh collaboration with this classic fantasy tale which boasts an ensemble cast including Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit and newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice.

With massive buzz and huge interest since the announcement of its production, "Alice in Wonderland" is poised to give Disney a huge and potentially record breaking March debut performance this weekend. In addition, the IMAX presentations of the film promise to deliver a healthy slice of additional giant screen enhanced revenue to the tea party.

Next up from Overture Films is the gritty cop drama "Brooklyn's Finest" which, like "Alice," features a great ensemble including Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Vincent D'Onofrio and Ellen Barkin. More importantly, the film hits the marketplace with the built-in street cred of having "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua at the helm.

As one of the best R-rated cop dramas in recent memory, "Training Day" starred Denzel Washington in one of his most memorable and powerful performances and "Brooklyn's Finest" star Ethan Hawke in a career defining role that showed that he could literally go toe-to-toe with the larger-than-life Washington.

Overture films has done a terrific job marketing the film as they did with "The Crazies" which opened last weekend to solid returns.

This weekend a little three hour plus infomercial for the movie industry hits small screens around the world as the 82nd annual Academy Awards is set for telecast on Sunday night and marks a huge change from recent years with ten Best Picture contenders rather than the typical five nominees. Speculation abounds as to the ratings boost that might be gleaned from a crop of films that have been seen by such a massive number of eyeballs on the global stage and have collectively generated nearly $1.7 billion in domestic box-office revenue.