Occasionally the Australian box-office produces results that the trade doesn’t expect: the latest examples are last weekend’s debuts by 47 Ronin and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
A 3D action-adventure set in mythical Japan about a half-breed slave (Keanu Reeves) who joins a band of samurai in a quest for vengeance, 47 Ronin collared $1.77 million, the highest per-location average ($9,700) of any wide release.
That’s rather better than most executives- apart from distributor Universal- had expected, particularly in view of the lousy US figure of $US37.6 million. The budget reportedly was $175 million- a rash amount to entrust to first-time feature director Carl Rinsch- so the studio will probably take a sizable hit.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, which has Chris Pine taking over the role played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, nabbed $2.1 million in four days plus $46,000 on Wednesday night previews at five screens.
Pro-rata that’s a stronger opening than in the US where the Kenneth Branagh-directed action thriller took a measly $15.6 million last weekend. Both titles benefitted from a gap in the market for male-skewing action fare, although Jack Ryan clearly has a broader appeal.
Overall Australian takings amounted to $18.7 million, just 3% down on the prior weekend. Disney’s animated blockbuster Frozen ruled the roost, raking in $2.5 million in its fourth outing, and $27.7 million to date.
Strong word of mouth sustained WWII drama The Book Thief, which fetched $2.16 million in its second weekend (off 11%), propelling its total to $6.2 million.
Disney's Saving Mr. Banks eased by 21% to $1.78 million in its second outing, taking its tally to a sturdy $5.5 million.
The 10 Academy Award nominations for American Hustle had a palpable effect as the comedy-drama rose by 2% to $689,000 in its sixth weekend, banking $11.3 million thus far.
Jonathan Teplitzy’s The Railway Man advanced to $5 million after pocketing $481,000 in its fourth frame, down by just 16%.
Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, which stars Oscar Isaac as a fictional folk singer in New York in the 1960s, rang up $245,000 on 32 screens. That’s a decent but not dazzling opening for the directors of True Grit and No Country for Old Men.
Spike Jonze’s Her , which features Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely writer who becomes enamoured of a computer-generated voice (Scarlett Johansson), launched on the same number of screens and delivered $303,000.
Still, maybe those figures aren’t so surprising given Llewyn Davis has earned $11.1 million in the US while Her has conjured up $15 million after three weeks on limited screens and two weekends of wide release.
Mind Blowing Films' Dhoom 3 is now the highest-earning Bollywood film ever in Australia with $1.7 million, surpassing the same distributor's 3 Idiots.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Jan 16-19
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
Frozen |
4/380 |
$2,564,465 |
-18 |
$27,699,584 |
|
2 |
The Book Thief |
2/250 |
2,158,730 |
-11 |
6,226,148 |
|
3 |
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit |
1/267 |
2,118,402 |
NA |
2,166,293 |
|
4 |
Saving Mr. Banks |
2/272 |
1,776,790 |
-21 |
5,484,146 |
|
5 |
47 Ronin |
1/324 |
1,773,255 |
NA |
1,773,255 |
|
6 |
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug |
4/500 |
1,741,796 |
-41 |
34,780,340 |
|
7 |
Free Birds |
2/268 |
1,048,715 |
-4 |
3,271,597 |
|
8 |
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty |
4/233 |
832,948 |
-43 |
12,570,697 |
|
9 |
American Hustle |
6/131 |
688,970 |
-+2 |
11,286,841 |
|
10 |
Philomena |
4/131 |
678,765 |
-19 |
7,041,817
|
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia