Ticket sales at Australian cinemas last weekend slumped to their lowest level of 2013 as none of the new entrants proved to be appealing and most of the holdovers struggled.
The 93 films currently in release collectively raked in a measly $7.6 million, down 14% on the previous weekend.
After bombing in the US, the mediocre debut of Roland Emmerich's White House Down was no surprise. The action thriller starring Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum grabbed $1.8 million, the only title to crack $1 million-plus.
Aussie director Robert Luketic's corporate espionage thriller Paranoia fetched a miserable $144,000 on the heels of its US demise, despite the high-profile cast led by Harrison Ford, Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfuss.
Action comedy Red 2 tumbled by 43% to $824,000 in its second assignment, propelling its total to a ho-hum $2.8 million.
The Steve Jobs biopic Jobs declined by 42% to $330,000 after an unimpressive opening, bringing its total to $1.1 million.
In the specialised area, The Gatekeepers, Dror Morer's documentary about six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel's counter-terrorist security agency, rang up a respectable $26,000 at just four cinemas.
Salinger, Shane Salerno's biopic of reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who wrote Catcher in the Rye, opened solidly on limited screens in the US last weekend but here it might have been a case of J.D. Who? as the docu scraped up $19,000 on 22 screens.
After a so-so debut, good word-of-mouth buoyed The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore's s thriller starring Geoffrey Rush, as it made $293,000 (down 20%), and $848,000 thus far.
Kim Mordaunt's Laos-set The Rocket held stoutly in its second round, pocketing $49,000 on 13 screens, off just 10%, taking its cumulative earnings to $217,000.
Red Obsession, Warwick Ross and David Roach's documentary examining China's thirst for high-end Bordeaux wines and the repercussions in other countries, swallowed $35,000 in its fourth frame, boosting the tally to a tasty $347,000.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Sept 5-8
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
White House Down |
1/279 |
$1,798,622 |
NA |
$1,850,405 |
|
2 |
Now You See Me |
5/213 |
962,519 |
-30 |
14,038,730 |
|
3 |
Red 2 |
2/263 |
824,031 |
-43 |
2,829,766 |
|
4 |
We’re the Millers |
4/290 |
794,184 |
-19 |
7,690,776 |
|
5 |
Elysium |
4/259 |
774,674 |
-42 |
10,123,474 |
|
6 |
The Mortal Instruments |
3/224 |
418,952 |
-40 |
3,309,813 |
|
7 |
Jobs |
2/177 |
330,850 |
-42 |
1,135,222 |
|
8 |
The Best Offer |
2/110 |
293,653 |
-20 |
848,594 |
|
9 |
Kick-Ass 2 |
3/167 |
212,940 |
-54 |
2,241,867 |
|
10 |
Paranoia |
1/143 |
143,949 |
NA |
145,094 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia