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Guardians of the Galaxy not so mercurial

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t inspiring the same kind of fan frenzy in Australia as in the US, judging by the opening weekend.

The intergalactic comedy-adventure starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper disguised as a feisty raccoon rang up $6.5 million last weekend.

Adding the prior weekend’s previews, the Disney release has taken $8.8 million, a nice chunk of change but pro-rata below the US debut of $US94.3 million, which was the third biggest of the year behind Transformers: Age of Extinction's $97.5 million and Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $95 million.

Nationwide takings in Oz improved only marginally to $14.5 million, up from the previous frame’s $14.2 million, according to Rentrak's estimates.

Luc Besson’s action/sci-fier Lucy withstood the guardians’ invasion pretty well, dropping by 45% to $2.5 million, which propels the 11-day tally to $8.7 million.

Disney staged further previews of Lasse Hallström’s The Hundred-Foot Journey, cooking up $683,000 at the weekend and $828,000 thus far. That bodes well for the romantic drama about a family of new Indian immigrants in France who open a restaurant across the road from a Michelin one-star, starring Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon and Helen Mirren.

Rob Reiner’s And So it Goes has an appealing cast in Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton in a rom-com about the clash between an obnoxious and misanthropic widowed real estate guy and a widow/aspiring cabaret singer. However its mediocre $462,000 debut plus $98,000 from seniors’ club previews was no great surprise in light of the skimpy $13.3 million US takings.

Anton Corbijn’s spy drama A Most Wanted Man eased by 23% to $240,000 in its second outing on 45 screens, banking a solid $672,000 so far.

Monty Python Live (Mostly) rustled up $225,000 in encore screenings on 124 screens after last Wednesday’s premiere for a total of $449,000, which suggests the Python fan club has diminished over the years.

John Carney’s Begin Again, a musical comedy-drama starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, platformed in Melbourne and Sydney and in limited sneaks in other cities with a promising $178,000 on 41 screens, $223,000 with earlier previews, and will broaden in the next two weeks.

Word-of-mouth hasn’t kicked in for Australian apocalyptic thriller These Final Hours, which plunged by 62% to $79,000, scoring $384,000 in 11 days.
 

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Aug 7-10

 

 

Title

 

Week/ Screens

 

Box Office

 

% +-

 

Total

 

1

Guardians of the Galaxy

1/586

$6,552,690

NA

$8,872,826

2

Lucy

2/339

2,581,031

-45

8,725,890

3

The Hundred-Foot Journey

PV/243

683,601

NA

827,929

4

                  Hercules

3/260

681,201

-54

7,181,892

5

And So It Goes

1/189

462,035

NA

513,472

6

Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie

3/226

447,048

-36

4,178,204

7

Sex Tape

4/205

444,928

-43

6,702,239

8

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

5/134

438,103

-51

17,698,890

9

Deliver Us From Evil

3/146

290,569

-46

2,338,142

10

A Most Wanted Man

2/46

239,988

-23

672,157

Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia