John Jarratt’s serial killer Mick Taylor squared off against Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Eric Bana and Emile Hirsch as Navy SEALs in Afghanistan in Australian cinemas last weekend.
Wolf Creek 2 was the victor over Lone Survivor, but not by a huge margin. Greg Mclean’s horror movie inspired by the Ivan Milat backpacker murders rang up $1.68 million, and $1.7 million with previews.
A sizable hit in the US, the Peter Berg-directed Lone Survivor raked in $1.48 million, $1.53 million with sneaks. It will be fascinating to see where these two male-skewed films finish up, considering Lone Survivor’s takings trailed the Australian film on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but overtook it on Sunday.
The first Wolf Creek pulled in $1.23 million in its opening in 2005 and ended up with $6.1 million, an unusually strong multiple of five times the first weekend.
Overall it was a dreary weekend as nationwide grosses slumped by 19% to $9.9 million. The only other title to earn more than $1 million was The Wolf of Wall Street, which nabbed $1.06 million in its fifth outing, advancing to $19.8 million.
Two upscale titles, Roger Michell’s Le Week-end and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, went head to head. The former, a romantic comedy-drama starring Lindsay Duncan, Jim Broadbent and Jeff Goldblum, proved to be more accessible, taking $228,000 on 59 screens, $254,000 with previews.
Nebraska, which stars Bruce Dern as a cantankerous, befuddled old-timer who heads from Montana to Nebraska believing he’s won $1 million in a lottery, fetched $141,000 on 43 screens, $143,000 with sneaks. Still, the six Oscar nominations and terrific word-of-mouth are likely to sustain Payne’s hugely entertaining black-and-white road movie.
The nine Oscar nods for Twelve Years a Slave are paying dividends as Steve McQueen’s historical drama collected $414,000 in its fourth frame, lifting its total to $4.4 million.
The six nominations for Dallas Buyers Club appear to be having less of an impact as the true-life AIDS drama took $275,000 in its second weekend, scoring $941,000 thus far.
After getting some uplift from being launched on the Valentine’s Day weekend, Are We Officially Dating? and Endless Love both plummeted in their second outings, taking $454,000 and $401,000 respectively, $1.77 million and $1.68 million thus far.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Feb 20-23
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
Wolf Creek 2 |
1/216 |
$1,681,636 |
NA |
$1,702,073 |
|
2 |
Lone Survivor |
1/259 |
1,485,667 |
NA |
1,534,293 |
|
3 |
The Wolf of Wall Street |
5/307 |
1,061,828 |
-47 |
19,857, 330 |
|
4 |
Last Vegas |
3/247 |
810,959 |
-46 |
5,058,199 |
|
5 |
RoboCop |
3/224 |
799,147 |
-53 |
5,795,834 |
|
6 |
Are We Officially Dating? |
2/174 |
454,360 |
-53 |
1,773,963 |
|
7 |
12 Years a Slave |
4/158 |
413,758 |
-31 |
4,433,619 |
|
8 |
Endless Love |
2/206 |
401,027 |
-63 |
1,688,288 |
|
9 |
Dallas Buyers Club |
2/70 |
274,669 |
-32 |
941,162 |
|
10 |
The Book Thief |
7/141 |
272,632 |
-38 |
13,362,268 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia