17. Alice In Wonderland (2010)
Tim Burton's completely unnecessary adaptation of Lewis Carroll's timeless 19th century fantasy novels took many people (myself included) by surprise when it stormed the box office in March 2010 en route to becoming Disney's second-ever billion dollar movie. Despite massive commercial success and Academy Award wins for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, it isn't very good. At times visually immersive, the movie is let down by a plodding narrative and flat 3D that compromises the top-notch production design. Featuring a sprawling ensemble cast, some of whom only provide voice-work and others that appear in CGI-augmented form, Alice in Wonderland is an undoubted visual treat, which is to be expected from the vivid imagination of Tim Burton. However, the narrative is slight to say the least, with many of the performances so over-the-top the 3D almost lets you feel the actors chewing the scenery. Shooting 90% of the movie against a greenscreen doesn't lend itself to Burton's darker sensibilities, and despite the incredibly detailed world of the movie a no-more-than-okay 3D post-conversion renders much of it murky, especially when the third act becomes a full-blown CGI assault on the senses. The movie opened to a massive $116.1m domestically, and took almost $700m internationally to finish up with $1.025bn worldwide, making it the sixth-biggest movie ever at the time. Would Alice in Wonderland have crossed the billion dollar mark if it wasn't the first high-profile 3D release following Avatar's game-changing success?* Probably not. Is it the worst movie to gross over a billion dollars? I certainly think so. *I guess we'll find out with the sequel recently announced for a May 27, 2016 release, this time with Muppets director James Bobin at the helm.