英语文摘:"Alice in Wonderland" winning at N America box office for third week

LOS ANGELES, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" has been the champion of the North America box office for three weeks in a row, beating other contenders with phenomenal ticket receipts, the North America box office authority said Sunday.

Although the Disney 3-D film, the latest pairing of actor Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, saw a declined take of 45 percent over the previous week, it still bought in a total of 34.5 million dollars in estimated ticket sales this weekend from Friday through Sunday. The film has amassed an estimated 265.8 million dollars in its 17-day run, projected statistics show.

Three debuts made it into the top five.

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid," the film adaptation of a popular illustrated novel of a wise-cracking junior high school student, debuted in the number two slot with surprisingly 21.8 million dollars for Fox Studios, more than any other new film in the U.S. and Canada. It was produced with a small budget of 15 million dollars.

"The Bounty Hunter," a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, began its exhibition in third place, ringing up 21 million dollars in estimated ticket sales for Sony/ Columbia. Sony Pictures and Relativity Media paid a little over 40 million to produce it.

"Repo Men," the futuristic action-thriller from Universal, was fourth with 6.15 million dollars. It is set in the near future when artificial organs can be bought on credit, it revolves around a man who struggles to make the payments on a heart he has purchased.

Aside from "Alice," the other old guard remaining at the top five is Paramount's "She's Out of My League," last week's No. 3, with 6 million dollars. It has garnered a total of 19.95 million dollars in ticket receipts in two weeks.