Battle at the Box Office 3/11

The Wizard of Oz is still a powerful franchise, as Oz the Great and Powerful, despite mediocre reviews, had the best opening of 2013 with $80.3 million.  It’s not quite to the level of Alice in Wonderland’s debut, but it wasn’t a John Carteresque disaster for Disney that some people were thinking this could be.  The other fantasy adventure movie out right now, Jack the Giant Slayer was a far distant second with $10 million.  Identity Thief dropped down to third with $6.3 million.  The other new release, Dead Man Down, had a mediocre opening with $5.4 million, putting it in the company of the earlier R rated action bombs like The Last Stand and Bullet to the Head.  Snitch rounded out the top 5 with another $5.1 million.  The only real movement lower on the list was The Last Exorcism Part II dropping to almost out of the top ten in it’s second week, barely holding on to tenth place with $3.1 million.