Maybe Alice in Wonderland could have stayed afloat at #1 in this week’s box office, but How to Train Your Dragon, the latest flick from DreamWorks Animations, occupied 4,055 screens, the majority of them 3D. Alice now plays on 3,384. Dragon grossed $43.3 million these past two days, pretty far off from Shrek the Third’s record-breaking opening of $121.6 million in 2007. It even shied away from DreamWorks’ last flick Monsters vs. Aliens, which had a debut of $59.3 million. 3D wasn’t even as big as it is now this time in 2009. The flick didn’t seem to prosper much from its 97% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, either. Aliens boasted only a 72% fresh rating. Still, it’s $43.3 million. Though on a budget of $165 million, the highest ever for a DreamWorks cartoon, more people need to start strapping on those glasses.

Surprisingly far off (though again, the lack of available 3D screens) Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland made another $17.3 million but fell almost 50%. It currently has $293.1 million domestic in its fourth weekend. I don’t think I need to tell you how big of a hit this was for Disney. In third place was Steve Pink’s high-concept (if not lowbrow) comedy Hot Tub Time Machine with $13.7 million. Playing out of 2,754 projectors, early buzz from MGM had everyone thinking this was the next Hangover. Well, read our review of it and let us know what you thought. Not quite Hangover numbers in its opening, but it beat Pink’s last major movie Accepted, which started with $10 million in 2006. It’ll be interesting if word-of-mouth lets this hang in the top five for a few more weekends or if it’ll just come and go as easily as saying the film’s title.

The Gerard Butler/Jennifer Aniston rom-com The Bounty Hunter saw a 40.1% drop, taking in $12.4 million, and a States haul of $38.8 million in ten days. To be honest with you folks, there’s a much better Butler comedy out there right now. I’d suggest you see that instead of this.

Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid rounds out the top five with $10 million, stooping a large 54.8% as opposed to last weekend. Though with a $35.8 million total in ten days with Fox only inputting $15 million, this proved to be a sizable if not forgettable investment on their behalf.

Out of the top five-

• Playing on 178 more screens this weekend (including some in my home state) Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg flew 795.5% to #14 with $1.1 million.
• Atom Egoyan’s latest Chloe, about a worried doctor who hires a prostitute to mousetrap her husband, opened to dismissal reviews (a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes). Not sure of an expansion anytime soon, but it made $1 million on a $15 million budget.
• Don Hahn’s documentary on animation Waking Sleeping Beauty began with $33,100 on five screens.
• Sundance pick Lbs, about a grossly overweight man who decides to lose fat by traveling countryside, started off with $10,900 on a single screen.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. 1. How to Train Your Dragon…$43.3 million
2. 2. Alice in Wonderland (2010)…$17.3 million
3. 3. Hot Tub Time Machine…$13.7 million
4. 4. The Bounty Hunter…$12.4 million
5. 5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid…$10 million
6. 6. She’s Out of My League…$3.5 million
7. 7. Green Zone…$3.4 million
8. 8. Shutter Island…$3.2 million
9. 9. Repo Men…$3 million
10. 10. Our Family Wedding…$2.2 million