Audiences, still entranced by the Avatar experience, turned up in force for the premiere of Disney’s latest adaptation of Alice in Wonderland this weekend. Tim Burton’s PG-rated take on the Lewis Carroll classic took in an estimated $116.3 million over its first three days – a total well above the initial grosses for James Cameron’s conceptual wonderland.

Director Tim Burton’s much-anticipated 3D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland arrived at the box office with a bang on Friday. Estimates give the Disney pic a one day total of $41 million from its 3,728 theatres, putting it on a track for an opening weekend well above $100 million. That figure is high enough to crown Alice the all-time leader for a March debut while also making it the highest opening ever for a 3D feature; outstripping the $26.7 million Avatar earned on its first Friday last December. Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn’s Finest premiered as a distant second with $5.2 million from its 1,936 theatres, though that figure only looks unimpressive when viewed next to the giant success of Alice. Full details on Oscar weekend’s top ten when you check back here tomorrow.

Popular speculation views Antoine Fuqua’s picture, Brooklyn’s Finest, to be a re-hashed version of Martin Scorcese’s 2006 Oscar triumph, The Departed.  The assumption is that both movies use the same formula (powerful casts, acclaimed directors, and crooked cops v. career criminals) to tell the same story.  In reality, this comparison makes as much sense as Val Kilmer as Batman.  It quickly becomes apparent that Fuqua has seen those other cops and robbers films, and has literally flipped the script.

The actors themselves best explain why Fuqua’s soon-to-be-acclaimed picture successfully reinvents the cops and robbers formula.  In recent interviews with Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, and Richard Gere, the stars of the film explain what attracted each of them to the project, and what makes this film so unique.

Hit the jump for more:

Today we’d like to share with you an exclusive TV spot we received for director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) upcoming cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest.  The film follows three stories: A burnt-out officer (Richard Gere) trying to make it through his last week on the job, an undercover detective (Don Cheadle) who’s been pretending he’s a criminal for so long that his loyalties are starting to lie with his targets, and a dirty cop (Ethan Hawke) trying to provide for his family.  Over the course of a week, all three men find themselves on a dangerous collision course as the NYPD targets a drug-ridden Brooklyn project.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spot along with the official synopsis.  Brooklyn’s Finest hits theaters this Friday, March 5th.

In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation in Brooklyn’s Finest, a new crime drama from director Antoine Fuqua.  Starring Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere, the film captures the volatile and deadly world of one of New York’s most dangerous precincts through the eyes of the men and women pledged to protect and serve.

To help promote the March 5 release, we’ve been provided with 9 clips from the film and you can watch them after the jump:

During tonight’s Super Bowl, a bunch of commercials for upcoming movies were shown.  In case you missed the game, they showed ads for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Crazies, Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn’s Finest, and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.  If you missed the game or just want to rewatch the ads, they’re all after the jump, along with the synopses.

The trailer for Antoine Fuqua’s new film Brooklyn’s Finest has just come online and I don’t believe what I’m seeing.  By returning to the setting of his breakthrough film Training Day, has Fuqua made his first good movie since that film?  And now with Ethan Hawke playing the dirty cop role, is he going to hold his own along side Richard Gere and Don Cheadle?  It all looks that way because Brooklyn’s Finest, which garnered a positive response at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, seems like a pretty damn good movie.

Click over to check out the trailer and hit the jump to read a synopsis.  Brooklyn’s Finest hits theaters on March 5, 2010.

From the exciting world of movie distribution deals comes news that the latest films from directors Steven Soderbergh and Antoine Fuqua will both find their audiences.  Fuqua’s already completed “Brooklyn’s Finest” will go out via Overture after an earlier deal for domestic distribution fell through.  Meanwhile Steven Soderbergh’s “Knockout”, which begins shooting next January, has caught the interest of Lionsgate, the proud studio behind  this week’s number one film “I Can Do Bad All By Myself.”  More after the jump.