Though experts predict a more than 50 percent drop after a record opening, Disney and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” is expected to easily hold off four newcomers in its second weekend. Disney needs to squeezer every last dollar possible from this pricey production before DreamWorks “How to Train Your Dragon” starts siphoning away 3-D screens in two weeks. “Alice” forecasts for this weekend are in the $42-52M range, which would be a far steeper drop-off than any for “Avatar,” which admitedly didn’t open anywhere near the stratospheric $116 million that “Alice” managed. The strongest of the newcomers is reckoned to be “The Green Zone,” with an opening in the high teens forecast. Reviews are 51 percent favorable at Rotten Tomatoes, which is low for a film starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. My colleague Kyle Smith has stopped just short of calling for a boycott a film he calls a “slander” on the United States, but as I say in my three star review, I think audiences will give shrug off the movie’s innefectual and belated attack on the Bush Administration, which refuses to name names unlike the non-fiction book that “inspired” it. Universal, which has had the film on the shelf for a while, is downplaying the politics and Iraq war aspects, wisely selling this as an action thriller in the vein of Damon and Greengrass’ two Jason Bourne hits. Most prognosticators think “Remember Me” will open around $10 million, which would confirm the suspicion that “Twilight” stars like Robert Pattinson aren’t draws outside that franchise — not good news for Kristen Stewart and “The Runaways,” next week. Kyle gives Pattinson’s 9/11-themed tearjerker one star and it’s running 34 percent positive at RT. Forecasters believe that holdovers “Shutter Island” and the other two wide openers will land similar numbers, give or take. Paramount’s “She’s Out of Control” gets zero stars from Kyle and 44 percent positive reviews at RT, while “Our Family Wedding,” the week’s worst-reviewed flick at RT with 13 percent, draws a one-star pan from me.
