It was a dud weekend at Australian cinemas as distributors launched a bunch of films which failed to connect with audiences, mainstream or art house.
The casualties included an action comedy, a biopic, two thrillers and a horror movie, despite the presence of such stars as Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren, Ashton Kutcher, Geoffrey Rush and Nicole Kidman.
The best of the newbies was Red 2, the sequel to the 2010 caper about a group of retired CIA spies, which debuted in top spot with $1.45 million. That’s a mediocre figure considering the cast led by Willis, Mirren, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Pro rata, the Australian opening is below the $US18 million debut in the US, where the film has racked up $52 million.
Now You See Me held stoutly in its fourth outing, taking $1.3 million, down 31%, bringing its tally to $12.7 million.
Jobs, the biopic featuring Kutcher as Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and chairman of Apple, did not compute, taking $572,000 on 179 screens. With hindsight, that was an overly ambitious release for a film that opened in the US with a measly $6.7 million.
The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore’s thriller starring Rush as a lonely art auctioneer/collector who falls hard for a mysterious, reclusive young woman, co-starring Sylvia Hoeks and Donald Sutherland, fetched $365,000 on 110 screens.
You’re Next, a home invasion movie about an overbearing yuppie who delights in tormenting a college professor, featuring Aussie Sharni Vinson, A.J. Bowen and Joe Swanberg, took few prisoners, nabbing $134,000 on 56.
Stoker, South Korean director Park Chan-wook's English-language debut, a claustrophobic thriller about family secrets and lies, took $73,000 on 22 screens, $127,000 including previews- a poor return for a film starring Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Jacki Weaver.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Aug 29-Sept 1
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
Red 2 |
1/264 |
$1,440,315 |
NA |
$1,450,315 |
|
2 |
Now You See Me |
4/244 |
1,366,459 |
-31 |
12,716,065 |
|
3 |
Elysium |
3/280 |
1,324,258 |
-39 |
8,949,397 |
|
4 |
We’re the Millers |
3/299 |
977,377 |
-42 |
6,566,572 |
|
5 |
The Mortal Instruments |
2/230 |
703,569 |
-56 |
2,663,847 |
|
6 |
Jobs |
1/179 |
571,837 |
NA |
571,837 |
|
7 |
Kick-Ass 2 |
2/199 |
463,682 |
-57 |
1,874,648 |
|
8 |
The Best Offer |
1/110 |
365,642 |
NA |
388,532 |
|
9 |
The Wolverine |
6/125 |
168,981 |
-56 |
15,529,624 |
|
10 |
One Direction: This is Us |
PR/67 |
135,418 |
NA |
135,418 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia