Tim Burton’s highly anticipated Alice in Wonderland could play spoiler to Avatar, with many pundits predicting the 3D fantasy will surpass the opening weekend earnings of James Cameron’s global hit.

Disney’s Alice, the year’s first 3D tentpole release, bows Friday on a reported 3,400 North American screens — comparable to Avatar when it opened back in December. The sci-fi fantasy earned US$77 million in its opening weekend, while pre-release tracking for Alice indicates the film could ring in US$75 million or more, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Based on the children’s classic, the film follows 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as she returns to the whimsical world of her childhood to stop the Red Queen’s reign of terror. Bankable star Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter.

Avatar could regain momentum at the box office after Sunday’s Academy Awards, where it is nominated for nine Oscars including best picture and director.

Countering Alice is Alliance Films’ cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest, from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), opening on 108 screens in Canada and 1,700 screens stateside through Overture Films. It stars Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle in a story about three unconnected Brooklyn cops who wind up at the same deadly location.

Also opening Friday:

• Mongrel Media has French director Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed A Prophet, playing at Toronto’s Cumberland and Vancouver’s Fifth Avenue and Tinseltown theaters. The drama, about a youth who is condemned to six years in a prison ruled by Arab and Corsican gangs, is up for best foreign feature at the Academy Awards.

• Roman Polanski’s mystery drama The Ghost Writer opens in Toronto and Vancouver via E1 Entertainment. It stars Ewan McGregor as a nameless writer hired to finish a former British prime minister’s memoir. The film will expand on March 19.

• Alliance also has the Ashley Judd-starrer Helen playing an exclusive engagement in Toronto. The drama follows a professor’s struggle with depression and the effect it has on her family.