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Aussie serial killer vs Navy SEALs

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