OZ Has GREAT & POWERFUL Opening Weekend with $80M

OZ Has GREAT & POWERFUL Opening Weekend with $80M OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL had a pretty magical opening weekend, sweeping the box office with over $80 million.

Sam Raimi's fantasy adventure, a prequel to the hit film, THE WIZARD OF OZ, stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Joey King and Bruce Campbell.

The film traces the origins of L. Frank Baum's beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot--fame and fortune are his for the taking--that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Kunis), Evanora (Weisz) and Glinda (Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity--and even a bit of wizardry--Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, which opened to a ho-hum $28 million last weekend, grossed an additional $10 million, bumping its two-week total to just over $43M.

Univeral's IDENTITY THIEF, starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman, took in another $6.3M, raising its total to a stellar $116.5M.

DEAD MAN DOWN, starring Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Dominic Cooper and Terrence Howard, was pretty much dead on arrival, drawing in just $5.3M worth of tickets. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's latest action flick, SNITCH, grossed an additional $5.1 million, bumping its three-week total to $31.9 million.

Rentrak announced the box office rankings for this weekend (March 8-10). Check out the top 12 below:

1	Oz The Great and Powerful	Disney	$80,278,000	$80,278,000
2	Jack The Giant Slayer	Warner Bros.	$10,020,000	$43,811,369
3	Identity Thief	Universal	$6,319,210	$116,530,095
4	Dead Man Down	FilmDistrict	$5,350,000	$5,350,000
5	Snitch	Lionsgate	$5,100,000	$31,855,127
6	21 And Over	Relativity Media	$5,056,000	$16,839,975
7	Safe Haven	Relativity Media	$3,800,000	$62,884,097
8	Silver Linings Playbook	The Weinstein Company	$3,745,000	$120,749,342
9	Escape From Planet Earth	The Weinstein Company	$3,207,000	$47,832,182
10	Last Exorcism Part II, The	CBS Films	$3,120,000	$12,082,599
11	Good Day To Die Hard, A	20th Century Fox	$2,100,000	$63,346,401
12	Life Of Pi	20th Century Fox	$1,625,000	$119,413,152