ADVERTISEMENT

Bait 3D opens poorly at the box office

Australian-Singapore horror film Bait 3D has bombed at the box office, grossing less than $370,000 in its opening weekend.

The film, about sharks attacking a group of people trapped in a supermarket and car park flooded by a tsunami, grossed just $365,187 across 283 screens for a screen average of $1290. It is one of the worst recent performances by an Australian film in wide release.

Distributor Paramount also had a poor result with teen drama Wasted on the Young, which grossed $52,907 across 54 screens in its opening weekend of March 2011 (for a screen average $979). Fox's Matching Jack opened with $261,505 across 186 screens (for a screen average of $1405) in September 2010 and back in 2008, Disney's $6 million teen drama Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger took $302,033 across 134 screens (for a screen average of $2253).

The teen horror market is not a popular one in Australia with the exception of films such as the Paranormal Activity franchise and Wolf Creek. Bait 3D was pre-sold to all major territories and is expected to perform better in overseas markets.

Bait 3D's opening weekend result placed it in tenth position on the overall box office weekend chart. Local comedy Kath & Kimderella grossed another $558,184 in its third weekend at cinemas (placing it in sixth position) while feel-good film The Sapphires took another $441,029 in its seventh weekend (placing it in eighth position overall).

The Sapphires has now grossed more than $12.7 million, making it the sixteenth-best performing Australian film of all time (not adjusted for inflation) behind 1988 hit comedy Young Einstein ($13.38 million). 

Meanwhile, local war drama Lore opened in limited release across 11 screens, grossing $64,521 (for a screen average of $5866). Feature documentary Storm Surfers 3D doubled last weekend's box office takings with $64,558: its $600,000-plus box office performance further cementing its place as one of the most successful Australian feature documentaries of all time.

Contact this reporter at bswift@www.if.com.au or on Twitter at @bcswift.

Australian films at the box office 2012

  1. Hmmm, “Bait 3D” available on BluRay and digital download before it is on screens in Australian cinemas? Was there any advertising? Add a dismal bunch of reviews and a low Rotten Tomatoes score (especially the audience rating) and it is no wonder audiences stay away.

    What gets me is yet again we have a prime example of the lack of good promotion. If this were a Hollywood release, more of the budget would have been spent on promotion. When will Australian producers learn?
    I have not seen the film, but I know how many people flock to well-publicised garbage versus not seeing an under-promoted semi-decent or good film.

  2. It is just pathethic in Australia. No one knows what they’re doing. People just can’t get out of their stupid ignorant ways to improve things. I’m off to LA and kiss this shit goodbye.

  3. Bait 3D dire. The VFX package was an utter disaster and outsourced to some Singapore outfit who had no pipeline and no experience and that just sums up the management of the entire job.

  4. OMG no wonder this stiffed. The WORST actors with the most poor attempts at American accents in the first few minutes. I rented this piece of rubbish but ejected it after 5 mins,and then tried to stomach it again, suffered through it and rate it up there with something Lara Bingle would be involved in. This is an embarrassment to the Australian industry. One asks- how bad are these ‘actors’ and the answer is ‘hideously bad’. Poison at the box office bad- wont be seeing anything (other than bad soap re runs at 2am) from these ‘thespians’ anytime soon.
    This movie is like an expensive bad joke. ‘

  5. This has to be the worst Australian movie ever made! The cast are really really bad actors, even good actors couldn’t have have made this any good. Bait is beyond a joke.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *