NEW YORK - Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's trip down the rabbit hole drew huge crowds, as Alice in Wonderland earned a whopping $116.3 million in its opening weekend -- a record for a 3-D film.

The surprisingly huge total easily surpassed all other films in release and gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film Avatar. It also marked the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel.

"This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this very often."

The film beat forecasts that ranged between $65-$75 million, and the surprising results added some intrigue to Oscar Sunday. Before the weekend, Disney and 20th Century Fox competed over the available 3-D ready screens; screens outfitted for 3-D are rapidly rising, but still amount to fewer than 4,000 in the US and Canada.

Before Alice, many of those screens were still dedicated to Fox's box-office behemoth, Avatar.

In its 12th week of release, Avatar earned $7.7 million over the weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic total to $720.2 million.

The weekend's second best performer at the box-office was Overture's Brooklyn's Finest, Antoine Fuqua's gritty police thriller, which earned $13.5 million in its first weekend, according to studio estimates.

Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island for Paramount followed closely with $13.3 million in its third week of release, bringing its cumulative total to $95.8 million. Warner Bros's comedy Cop Out came in fourth, adding $9.1 million for a two-week total of $32.4 million.

It was a record release for the first quarter of the year, typically a time of lower box-office expectations and critically acclaimed Oscar contenders. The previous first quarter record was Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, which opened with $83.8 million in February 2004.

Though reviews were mostly respectfully negative, much of the film's draw was surely in teaming director Burton and his frequent collaborator, Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter. It also presented moviegoers with a 3-D updating of Lewis Carroll's beloved classic.

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