Pundits who expected the RoboCop remake to enter Australia in second place behind the third weekend of The Wolf of Wall Street were wrong- but only just.
The reboot of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi classic, directed by José Padilha, set in Detroit in 2028 and starring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Abbie Cornish, rang up $2.28 million last weekend.
That was fractionally ahead of The Wolf, which grabbed $2.24 million, tumbling by 40%, which brings its earnings to $15.5 million. It was a soft weekend, depressed by hot weather and the strong Sunday night on free-to-air TV, as industry-wide grosses fell by 11% to $11.7 million.
The geriatric antics of Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline on a bucks’ weekend in Last Vegas were moderately appealing as the Jon Turteltaub-directed comedy opened with $1.6 million ($1.8 million with sneaks).
Steve McQueen’s harrowing 12 Years a Slave fell by 38% to $721,000, scoring a solid $2.9 million in 11 days. Arguably the market for such serious fare was split between McQueen’s film and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which fetched a mediocre $569,000 in its debut ($645,000 with previews).
The Justin Chadwick-directed biopic of Nelson Mandela, starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, is playing on a very wide 226 locations, which suggests Roadshow Films may have over-estimated its potential.
Jason Reitman’s Labor Day, a romantic drama about a depressed single mother (Kate Winslet) and her son who offer a lift to an escaped convict (Josh Brolin), misfired, taking $331,000 on 170 screens ($442,000 with previews), no surprise after it bombed in the US a few weeks ago.
In the art house circuit, The Past, Asghar Farhadi’s drama about an Iranian man who deserts his French wife and two children to return to his homeland while she starts a new relationship, launched with a decent $70,000 on 14 screens, which brings the total to $213,000 including previews and festival screenings.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Feb 6- 9
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
RoboCop |
1/224 |
$2,281,135 |
NA |
$2,281,135 |
|
2 |
The Wolf of Wall Street |
3/337 |
2,241,131 |
-40 |
15,532,150 |
|
3 |
Last Vegas |
1/266 |
1,640,336 |
NA |
1,790,846 |
|
4 |
12 Years a Slave |
2/132 |
721,272 |
-38 |
2,903,345 |
|
5 |
The Book Thief |
5/250 |
649,499 |
-41 |
12,131,937 |
|
6 |
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom |
1/226 |
569,119 |
NA |
645,802 |
|
7 |
Frozen |
7/205 |
495,308 |
-36 |
33,713,067 |
|
8 |
Philomena |
7/175 |
432,221 |
-36 |
9,998,549 |
|
9 |
Labor Day |
1/170 |
331,560 |
NA |
441,793 |
|
10 |
Saving Mr. Banks |
5/165 |
291,430 |
-58 |
9,508,648 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia