ENTER THE "DRAGON" — IN 3D BATTLE

The battle of the 3D movies is due to grow more intense this weekend as Paramount/DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon competes against Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, which has held on to the No. 1 spot for the previous three weekends. (Although it has lost most of its venues, 20th Century Fox’s Avatar continues to hold on to hundreds of 3D screens and has remained among the top ten box-office draws for 15 weeks.) Both Alice and Dragon are expected to lose a significant number of 3D screens next weekend when Warner Bros.’ Clash of the Titans enters the 3D arena. Recent reports have indicated that theaters are raising 3D ticket prices by an average of 8 percent this weekend (IMAX tickets are reportedly going up more than 10 percent), a factor that could significantly affect attendance. (Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert tagged his review of Dragon today with this observation: “The movie is being shown in both 3-D and 2-D. The 3-D adds nothing but the opportunity to pay more to see a distracting and unnecessary additional dimension.”) Box office analysts are forecasting that Dragon will not come close to duplicating the success of Monsters vs. Aliens, which opened with $59.3 million over the same weekend last year. The Los Angeles Times‘s Ben Fritz predicted that it will earn $40-45 million, which, he said, “would be a blow for the movie, particularly given that it should generate significantly more money than Monsters for each ticket sold because of 3-D ticket premiums.” Nevertheless, the movie has been generating many enthusiastic reviews, something that usually translates into a long and successful run. The only other film opening wide this weekend is MGM’s Hot Tub Time Machine, a relatively low-budget flick that is the studio’s first release in six months. It’s expected to earn around $12-15 million.