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