Oz The Great And Powerful Enjoys $80.3m Opening Weekend Despite Mixed Reviews

It could have been the lack of any meaningful competition or just sheer curiosity as to what’s been done with this magical story, but Oz The Great and The Powerful – starring James Franco as Oz – has opened with an impressive $80.3m this weekend.

That’s easily the biggest opening weekend gross in 2013, granted, 2013 isn’t very old. But it’s also the third largest opening for a March release, sitting behind The Hunger Games and Johnny Depp's Alice in Wonderland. With 70 million worldwide, Oz brought its three-day, worldwide total to $150.2 million. This was all predicted, with the film’s competition and hype in mind, but considering the mixed reviews its received, this opening success will come as a relief to those involved. It’s got 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, which doesn’t make it a failure by any means, but it certainly isn’t a classic. It still has a way to go to recoup the reported $325m spent on the film, including marketing, but with the Easter period coming up, the box office – which is actually performing 15% worse than last year - should pick up speed as we head into Spring.

Here’s the box office table in full for this weekend:

1. Oz the Great and Powerful, $80.3 million

2. Jack the Giant Slayer, $10 million

3. Identity Thief, $6.3 million

4. Dead Man Down, $5.4 million

5. Snitch, $5.1 million

6. 21 and Over, $5.06 million

7. Safe Haven, $3.8 million

8. Silver Linings Playbook, $3.7 million

9. Escape From Planet Earth, $3.2 million

10. The Last Exorcism Part II, $3.1 million