By Simon de Bruyn
Cannes award-winner Samson and Delilah had its strongest weekend at the box office to date, taking a further $232,000 after expanding by three screens on its third weekend.
The film, which won director Warwick Thornton the prestigious Camera d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival overnight, recorded yet another high screen average of $14,500 over 16 screens.
This marks the highest weekend take for the film so far. After grossing $199,000 on 12 screens on its opening weekend, Samson and Delilah added $208,000 on its second weekend. The distributors said the film will be in 35 cinemas by June 4.
Meanwhile, My Year Without Sex – another Footprint Films release in conjunction with Paramount/Transmission – took $41,000 in previews on 20 screens.
This put the film in both the top 20 and limited release charts, just below new release Lesbian Vampire Killers which took $67,700 across 40 screens. My Year Without Sex expands to 25 locations this week.
Ahead of its screening at Dungog Film Festival this weekend, new documentary The Chifleys of Busby Street took $3,700 on three screens in its first weekend. Mary and Max added a further $40,000 with the film expected to hit $1.3 million by week’s end.