The prolonged Australian box-office drought is over, thanks to Darren Aronofsky’s Biblical epic Noah and animated comedy Mr Peabody & Sherman.
Audiences turned out en masse for the tale starring Russell Crowe as the man chosen by God to save the innocent so the evil and corrupt will perish as a cataclysmic flood covers the Earth.
Noah raked in $4.5 million to easily win the weekend, the biggest non-holiday opening for 2014 and Paramount’s biggest for the year to-date. That's in line with the impressive US debut of $US43.7 million, the biggest debut ever for Crowe in the US.
DreamWorks Animation’s Mr Peabody & Sherman, a comedy about a genius beagle who roams the world in his time machine with an orphan infant he’s adopted, fetched $2.4 million in its first four days. Including $1.3 million in previews from the prior weekend which Fox did not report, that brings the total to $3.77 million.
Those two titles boosted the overall B.O. by 27% to $12 million, delighting exhibitors who are expecting another surge from the launches this Thursday of The LEGO Movie and Disney’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The Monuments Men is hanging in, earning $1.2 million in its third frame, off 31%, propelling its tally to nearly $6.9 million. Buddy cop comedy Ride Along dropped by 34% to $613,000, scoring a moderate $1.8 million in 11 days.
John Curran's Tracks is losing screens and sessions in its fourth weekend, making $120,000, which brings its earnings to $2.06 million.
The Raid 2, Gareth Evans’ actioner about a Jakarta cop who goes undercover in jail to befriend the son of a mob boss, kicked off with a mediocre $70,000 at 19 screens. That’s well below the first Raid which launched on 42 screens in 2012 and wound up with $302,000.
Despite all the hype and notoriety over the explicit sex in Nymphomania, Lars von Trier’s four-hour drama caused few ripples as it bowed in 10 cinemas, making $41,000.
Half of a Yellow Sun, a Nigerian-set romantic drama about twin sisters, which stars 12 Years a Slave’s Chiwetel Ejiofor, got great reviews and copious publicity but that wasn’t reflected in the modest $34,000 debut on 24 screens.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE March 27-30
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
Noah |
1/387 |
$4,522,634 |
NA |
$4,522,634 |
|
2 |
Mr Peabody & Sherman |
1/508 |
2,437,999 |
NA |
3,778,343 |
|
3 |
The Monuments Men |
3/341 |
1,191,693 |
-31 |
6,871,911 |
|
4 |
Ride Along |
2/135 |
613,004 |
-34 |
1,808,600 |
|
5 |
Need for Speed |
3/240 |
589,753 |
-38 |
3,759,226 |
|
6 |
300: Rise of an Empire |
4/297 |
442,371 |
-52 |
8,163,686 |
|
7 |
Pompeii |
2/174 |
291,885 |
-54 |
1,187,867 |
|
8 |
Non-Stop |
5/115 |
271,883 |
-31 |
5,540,401 |
|
9 |
Cuban Fury |
2/179 |
159,609 |
-49 |
688,222 |
|
10 |
The Wolf of Wall Street |
10/44 |
159,367 |
-29 |
23,168,716 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia