Walt Disney

James Franco stars as Oz in Walt Disney Pictures' "Oz: The Great and Powerful."

Walt Disney Co's "Oz the Great and Powerful" reigned over movie box offices in its second weekend, following up its strong debut a week earlier with $42.2 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters.

The "Wizard of Oz" prequel starring James Franco beat newcomer "The Call," a thriller about a 911 operator trying to save a kidnapped girl. The movie starring Halle Berry earned $17.1 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.

"The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," a comedy featuring Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey as dueling Las Vegas magicians, finished the weekend in third place. It conjured up $10.3 million.

Sony Corp's movie studio released "The Call." "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" was distributed by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.

Breathing life into the beleaguered box office, Sam Raimi's 3D fantasy-adventure "Oz the Great and Powerful" took in an impressive $80.3 million in its North American debut and $69.9 million overseas for a global opening of $150.2 million.

Disney and producer Joe Roth hope to launch a family friendly franchise with "Oz," which scored the top North American debut of 2013, as well as the third-best March opening of all time after last year's "The Hunger Games" ($152.5 million) and fellow Disney fantasy-adventure "Alice in Wonderland," which debuted to $116.1 million in early March 2010.

PHOTOS: 'Oz the Great and Powerful': How Sam Raimi Brought the Legend Back to Life

The "Wizard of Oz" prequel tells the story of how a fast-talking Kansas circus worker (James Franco) became the Wizard of Oz. The three witches central to the story are played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams.

Disney spent north of $300 million on "Oz," between the $215 million production budget and a hefty worldwide marketing campaign. It is opening in the same corridor as Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," starring Johnny Depp. "Alice" received an A- CinemaScore from moviegoers, versus a B+ for "Oz."

"Oz" did solid, but not spectacular, business internationally, where the original 1939 film isn't as well known. Russia led with $15 million, followed by the U.K. ($5.7 million), Mexico ($5.1 million) and Australia ($5 million). Oz opened to $4.2 million in Germany, where it was in a close battle with holdover "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters."

"Oz" opened in a total of 46 territories, or roughly 80 percent of the international marketplace.

In North America, "Oz" saw a hefty 35 percent as families turned out in force, making up 41 percent of the audience. Couples made up 43 percent, while teenagers made up 16 percent. The movie skewed slightly female (52 percent).

"The families absolutely came out, but we also did great business during the evening," said Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis."After six weekends of decline at the box office, 'Oz' has become a water-cooler movie and gets people back in the mood to see movies."

Roughly 53 percent of the domestic gross came from 3D theaters, a pleasing number considering the overall decline in 3D attendance. IMAX theaters contributed 10 percent of the 3D total, or $8.2 million. Overseas, IMAX grosses came in at $4 million, setting a March record.

 As expected, "Oz" made life impossible for Bryan Singer's 3D fantasy-adventure "Jack and the Giant Slayer," which fell 63 percent in its second weekend to $10 million for a domestic total of $43.8 million. The tentpole, from New Line and Legendary Pictures, came in No. 2 domestically.

STORY: 'Oz's' Journey: 3 Studio Chiefs, Multi-Ethnic Munchkins, James Franco Scores $7 Million

The weekend's other new wide release, romantic thriller "Dead Man Down," fell flat in its opening, coming in No. 4 with roughly $5.5 million. Marking the English-language debut of Niels Arden Oplev, "Dead Man Down" reteams the filmmaker with his "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace.

Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper also star in the movie, which is being distributed domestically by FilmDistrict. IM Global, Original Films and Frequency Films are partners on the film.

Below are estimates for the March 8-10 weekend at the domestic box office.

Title, weeks in release/theater count, studio, three-day weekend total, cume (*denotes Oscar best picture nominee)

1. "Oz the Great and Powerful," 1/3,912, Disney, $80.3 million

2. "Jack the Giant Slayer," 2/3,525, Warner Bros., $10 million, $43.8 million

3. "Identity Thief," 5/3,002, Universal, $6.3 million, $116.5 million

4. "Dead Man Down," 1/2,188, FilmDistrict/IM Global, $5.4 million

5. "Snitch," 3/2,340, Lionsgate/Participant, $5.1 million, $26.8 million

6. "21 and Over," 2/2,771, Relativity Media, $5.1 million, $16.8 million

7. "Safe Haven," 4/2,541, Relativity, $3.8 million, $62.9 million

8. *"Silver Linings Playbook," 17/1,727, The Weinstein Co., $3.7 million, $120.7 million

9. "Escape From Planet Earth," 4/2,549, The Weinstein Co, $3.2 million, $47.8 million

10. "The Last Exorcism: Part II," 2/2,700, CBS Films, $3.1 million, $12.1 million

Related content:

• Review: 'Oz' prequel lacks heart, has courage
• Is 'Oz the Great and Powerful' too scary for kids?
• Five 'Oz' traumas from original film: Flying monkeys, melting witch
• Slideshow: A mom's guide to kid movies

OPINION: There's no question that the original "Wizard of Oz" features some scary scenes -- we list the five most traumatizing in this story. So parents can be forgiven for wondering: Should I take my child to the new prequel, "Oz the Great and Powerful"? Fair warning: It is rated PG, whereas for all its scares, the original film was rated G, so you've got to expect it's less kid-friendly.

Walt Disney Pictures

Sure, Finley, the flying monkey on the left, is cute as all get-out, but check out that beast on the right.

Warning: Plenty of spoilers for the new movie ahead.

1. Scarier flying monkeys
There is one friendly flying monkey in the new movie. Cute monkey Finley is rescued by James Franco's Wizard and becomes his pal. He's a pretty cute doe-eyed creature, but he doesn't represent the actual army of flying monkeys in the film. They're explained as "flying baboons" to distinguish them from the nicer-looking ones, and they're terrifying, with giant fangs and a much more demonic and threatening look than the 1939 flock. They zoom out of the mist, hunt for our heroes in caves, and generally up the scary factor of the originals by tenfold. Who looked at the original "Wizard of Oz" and said, "That film was great, but you know what it needed? Even scarier monkeys."

2. Witch weirdness
The three witches in this movie all start out appearing good, but we know that, other than Glinda, the other two have to make the leap to the dark side. And there's a very physical transformation of one of them that's pretty Jekyll-and-Hyde like in its painful-looking appearance. The scariest moment for a 5-year-old: When the witch's now-green hand suddenly grabs a table and her talon-like nails drag slowly and painfully into the wood. Like nails on a chalkboard with a satanic twist.

Walt Disney Pictures

For one 5-year-old, the witch's green, taloned hand dragging through a wooden table (you can see it in the previews too) was the film's scariest moment.

3. Glinda is tortured
We love Glinda. She's Glinda the Good! In the original movie, she just floats around in a big poofy prom dress and helps Dorothy out. (Though really, would it have hurt her to mention the thing about clicking your heels to take you home a little bit earlier?) Anyway, it's agonizing to see her chained between two posts so the evil witches can zap her with some kind of supernatural electricity over and over again. She appears unharmed in the end and of course she triumphs, but that's a long drawn-out scene that is not easy to watch.

Walt Disney Pictures

Dear Glinda (Michelle Williams), we love you and don't like seeing you tortured.

4. Minor scares and a battle
There are some weird little scares throughout the film, some which appear to have been thrown in simply to take advantage of the 3-D. In perhaps the biggest jump-scare moment in the film, a random flower-thing with googly eyes leaps into James Franco's face. There are also little buzzing pixie sprites that gnaw at him in that same scene, but they're played for laughs. There's also a scary walk through a dark forest with a bunch of eyes lighting up in the trees behind. Yes, we saw this in "Snow White," but it was nerve-wracking there too. And there's a big battle scene, though it turns out the good army we see attacked is not anything that can be injured, and there's a nice "we won!" moment for the good guys.

5. The destruction of China Town
There's a new element in this Oz, a place called China Town, made entirely of china dolls, dishes and the like. We don't see the town's destruction happen, but it's shattered by the flying baboons and we do see the aftermath. And when we met the character China Girl, her legs have been broken off (they're fixed by the Wizard) and we learn her entire family was destroyed, though that's not dwelled on.

Walt Disney Pictures

China Girl's village of China Town is destroyed, though we don't see it happen onscreen.

6. 3-D
The movie's in 3-D, which not only costs you extra but features things randomly jumping out into the audience. Mostly those aren't too aggressive or scary. But for sensitive kids who don't want to wear the glasses or don't like the extra dimension (or parents who want a cheaper ticket price), seek out a theater playing the film without the 3-D.

7. Length
The original "Wizard of Oz" is only 1 hour, 45 minutes long. "Oz the Great and Powerful" is 2 hours, 10 minutes. That extra half-hour could've easily been cut, as there are numerous scenes where the film just kind of drags, and one child in our screening briefly fell asleep.

8. The good things
All that said, the film treats the legacy of "Wizard of Oz" with respect. It doesn't mess around with the legend we already know, and it's colorful and lively, with some beautiful scenes. China Girl is a darling new character and the Wizard and Glinda are good guides through this strange and bizarre land. Older kids will enjoy it, and it's a good idea to rewatch the original first and discuss the differences together afterwards. We have even more details in our full review.

Should you take your child?
This mom wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 5. For 5- to 7-year-olds, you'll need to use your own judgment. I took my 5-year-old after reading the related picture book with her and making sure she knew things ended happily. She had a few climb-in-mom's-lap moments, but they weren't always what I thought they would be. I don't think she understood the bit about Glinda or China Town, it was the witch's hand dragging her fingernails into the wooden table that scared her the most. Kids over 7, unless they're very sensitive, will probably understand that it's a movie, that good triumphs and it does end happily. I still wish they'd come out with a director's cut that chops out a half-hour of unnecessary exposition -- although it does make bathroom breaks easier.

Related content:

• Review: 'Oz' prequel lacks heart, has courage
• Five 'Oz' traumas from original film: Flying monkeys, melting witch
• Slideshow: A mom's guide to kid movies

REVIEW: You've got to have courage to take on a film that's as beloved as "The Wizard of Oz," but a heart and a brain help, too. Prequel "Oz the Great and Powerful" could use a little more of both.

Walt Disney

James Franco plays the young Wizard of Oz in the prequel to the classic film.

That's not to say it's terrible. If you're off to see the Wizard, you won't feel that the 1939 original has been dissed here. And some of the new creations, especially China Town, a marvelous town made of china dishes and dolls, are as memorable as the poppy fields of old.

The story poses an intriguing question: How did the cranky braying Wizard get to be the faker behind the curtain? James Franco plays Oscar "Oz" Diggs, a dashing young Kansas carnival magician who breaks hearts and fakes out audiences with his illusions. The early scenes are played in black-and-white just as Dorothy's Kansas scenes were, and the people Oz mixes with will return once he gets to the Land of Oz, just as her farmhands do. That's a nice throwback, and there are others.

But once Oz gets to Oz and the world turns into sparkling color, things get too complicated and go on for way too long. The three witches (Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams) don't really stand out, except to note that costuming Kunis in skintight leather pants, trotting around Oz's wilderness in spike-heeled boots was a decision made for much crasser reasoning than Oz tradition or logic.

Walt Disney

In "Oz the Great and Powerful," at least one flying monkey is friendly.

Instead of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, the future Wizard pals up with Finley a flying monkey, sweet little China Girl, and to a lesser extent, two forgettable characters dubbed the Master Tinker and Knuck. Finley is a cute idea -- take those flying monkeys that traumatized us as kids and make them likable -- especially since the majority of the flying monkeys in this film have been given a horror-movie twist and are creepy baboons. But to play off another throwback to a Kansas friend, he's voiced by Zach Braff, whose whiny tone never fits cuddly looking Finley's role.

Say this about the original "Oz," the plot was simple. Follow the Yellow Brick Road to ask the Wizard for home, a brain, a heart, and courage. This one's all over the place, with the witches conniving against each other, China Girl's hometown destroyed and never avenged, and extraordinarily complicated battle-prep scenes. The movie is a groaningly long two hours plus, and one youngster in my screening fell asleep.

The film's in 3-D, apparently so things can fly at the screen randomly, but it rarely lives up to the jacked-up ticket price. Kids under 7 are going to face some scary scenes, including the more-terrifying monkeys, a weirdly frightening googly-eyed flower, and a creepy scene where the good witch Glinda is tortured.

In the original film, the Wizard was a big faker, hiding behind a grander image because he knew he wasn't what he pretended to be. "Oz the Great and Powerful" can't live up to a grander image either, but there's enough magic to make it enjoyable for what it is.

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In "Oz the Great and Powerful," opening March 8, James Franco plays a young Kansas magician who ends up the wizard of that magical land. Thinking of bringing your child to the new "Wizard of Oz" prequel? Parents, take note: The two-plus hour movie is rated PG "for sequences of action and scary images, and brief mild language."

Everett Collection

We hate you, flying monkeys of Oz.

Action and scary images, huh? Yeah, we saw the original 1939 "Wizard of Oz," and we're here to tell you: Some of those "scary images" stayed with us for life. Here are five that we've clawed out of our memory banks.

1. The flying monkeys
It doesn't seem that terrifying when you write it down. Monkeys, eh, not the most frightening member of the animal kingdom. Why does adding wings make them the worst thing this side of Freddy Krueger? They're unnatural, of course, and just creepy. And when the witch sends them en masse after Dorothy and friends and they darken the sky with their numbers, well, any kid who had nightmares knew exactly what caused them.

Walt Disney

Finley, a flying monkey from "Oz the Great and Powerful," isn't as scary as the 1939 flying monkeys.

2. 'How about a little fire, Scarecrow?'
Scarecrow was the most beloved of Dorothy's Yellow Brick Road companions. Yet he was also the most vulnerable -- it's a lot easier to beat up on a guy stuffed with straw than an axe-wielding tin man or a lion, even a cowardly one. Early on, he confesses that fire is his nemesis, and the witch teasingly pelts him with a fireball. Later on, his legs are literally torn off, and in a super-heart-rending moment near the end, the Wicked Witch taunts him with "How about a little fire, Scarecrow?" before setting his arm on fire. Thankfully, Dorothy's mad splash saves him, leading us to ...

3. The melting witch
Oh, we all wanted the Wicked Witch to get killed, no question about it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a little jolting to see her slowly sizzle and melt into the ground, screaming all the while. More than a few of us felt the same way about water when Mom insisted we take a bath, so we could relate.

Everett Collection

She's mellllllting!

4. Miss Gulch takes Toto
One little nip, and that's all it took to condemn Dorothy's sweet little dog to death at the hands of evil Miss Gulch. We have to say, Auntie Em and Uncle Henry were zero help here. We were completely traumatized until sweet little Toto escaped the Bike Basket of Death and was once again reunited with Dorothy. It doesn't get a lot better for dog lovers on the Oz side of the curtain, where the witch threatens to drown the little pup.

5. The Wizard's floating giant head
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! No problem, we're too busy staring at the creepy giant floating green head that the Wizard somehow thought would be an impressive and majestic representation of himself to keep Oz in line. Are we sure this was supposed to be a kids' movie?

What's your scariest "Wizard of Oz" memory? Vote in our poll, and share with us on Facebook.

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The Oscars are over, and so are the January-February new-release doldrums. Good films are starting to roll out again, including James Franco as the Wizard in "Oz the Great and Powerful." Here's a look at our three top entertainment picks for the week ahead.

TUESDAY: 'American Idol' goes live
The "American Idol" auditions are always crazy, but the show really kicks into gear when the live episodes begin this week. The show's narrowed its talent pool to 20, 10 men and 10 women, and will cut that group in half by Thursday. On Tuesday, the women will show their stuff, and on Wednesday, the guys -- whether or not they all deserve it -- get a chance. (March 5-7, 8 p.m. each night, Fox.)

TUESDAY: 'Wreck-It Ralph' on home video
Parents with fond memories of early video arcades and games can bond with their tech-generation kids this week when "Wreck-It Ralph" comes out on DVD and blu-Ray. In this charming animated film, John C. Reilly voices a video-game bad guy who's tired of being the villain. When he goes "game jumping" and ends up in a candy-themed race game, he bonds with little Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) and learns that his game role isn't what really matters. (On home video March 5.)

FRIDAY: "Oz the Great and Powerful"
The Wizard himself got short shrift in "The Wizard of Oz," which played him off as a kind of dumpy little dude behind a curtain. In this new take on L. Frank Baum's classic, James Franco plays a Kansas magician who takes a hot-air balloon into the magical land, meets its witches and Munchkins, and discovers the people of the troubled land need him to become someone else in order to save them. (Opens March 8.)

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The Super Bowl ads weren't just selling physical products, some of them were hyping big movies coming to theaters near you later in the year. Sadly, most of the ads were just teases -- tantalizing the audience with little snippets, some of which had already been seen in previously released teasers. ("World War Z," we're looking at you.)

"The Lone Ranger" ad was one of those that actually revealed never-before-seen footage, focusing on the repartee between the Ranger (Armie Hammer) and sidekick Tonto (Johnny Depp). Not everyone is sold on this film, however. Wrote Moviefone.com, "Eh. How long can we watch Johnny Depp act weird in makeup?"

The ad for "Iron Man 3" showed the superhero saving people who'd been flung out of Air Force One after it's attacked in middair, but then urged viewers to surf to the movie's Facebook page for an extended peek. Star Robert Downey Jr. begins the extended preview by stalking into the camera's eye, striking a number of poses and dramatically whipping off his sunglasses, then admitting, "That might have been more extensive than extended." 

Just two hours after it was posted, the extended trailer had been shared more than 30,000 times on Facebook.

"Oz the Great and Powerful" offers James Franco as the famed man behind the curtain, showing how he arrives in Oz long before Dorothy and her little dog Toto make the twister-led journey there. "The Land You Know -- The Story You Don't," promises the colorful preview, which includes the creepy Wicked Witch, Franco floating in an enormous bubble like one of those State Fair attractions, and some truly nightmare-inducing flying monkeys.

The "Star Trek Into Darkness" trailer features a creepy voiceover from Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the film's villain, and shows a combination of seen-before and new footage, including a shot of the beloved Enterprise in tatters. "Shall we begin?" Cumberbatch menacingly asks at the end. Yes, please!

The "Fast and Furious" franchise is up to its sixth film now, and if you like the speed and the crash-bang-smash-em-up action of the series, you'll find nothing to dissaude you in the latest installment. Vin Diesel, The Rock, women in bikinis and short skirts, it's the "Citizen Kane" of guy movies.

The "World War Z" trailer, like earlier previews of this Brad Pitt film, was remarkably light on the undead. As The Huffington Post cracked, the film "shows off the zombie apocalypse ("We've lost the East Coast") without actually showing off the zombie apocalypse." In a really odd glimpse, soldiers are seen marching out of a city carrying a framed copy of the U.S. Constitution. We the zombies, in order to form a more perfect brain-eating union...

Movie fans will have to wait a little while, though, to get beyond the trailers. "Oz the Great and Powerful" is the first of the advertised films to open, with a March 8 scheduled release. "Star Trek Into Darkness" opens May 17, "Fast and Furious 6" opens May 24, "World War Z" opens June 21, "The Lone Ranger" opens July 3, 

Which Super Bowl movie ad was your favorite? Vote in our poll, and tell us what you think on Facebook.

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