Australia’s love affair with the Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell rom-com Anyone But You continues, with the film topping the box office once again over the long weekend, easily beating out Wonka and Bollywood action thriller Fighter.
The Sony title eased a mere 11 per cent in its fifth frame to $1.5 million, bringing its tally to $18.3 million. Australia continues to be the leading market for the Sydney-set film outside of the US/Canada, with audiences clearly not minding its swipes about our love of coffee.
“Anyone But You’s resilience continues to surprise – clearly word of mouth is strong and it reinforces that people want to see comedies on the big screen,” Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell tells IF.
Wonka and Fighter found themselves in tight race for second and third position, with the Timothee Chalamet-led musical just winning out with $1.28 million ahead of the latter’s $1.23 million.
Now seven weekends in, Wonka has earned $36.7 million for Warner Bros. so far, making Australia the fourth best international market behind the UK, France and Mexico.
Mindblowing Films launched Fighter, from Pathaan director Siddharth Anand, on 139 screens, with the Hindi-language actioner sporting the best screen average in the top 20 at $8,821, and proving the only new release to make the top 10. Globally, Fighter, described as India’s answer to Top Gun, was the weekend’s leading title, premiering to $US25.1 million.
Other new releases last weekend included The Color Purple, which bowed at no. 11 with a modest $368,751 from 272 screens, or $403,302 with previews. Directed by Blitz Bazawule, the musical opened in North America a month ago on Christmas Day, where it has gone on to generate $US60 million. It was largely overlooked by the Academy, scoring just one Oscar nomination last week for Danielle Brooks as Best Supporting Actress.
Distributor WB notes the film’s opening is roughly on par with that of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and ahead of Respect (9 per cent), Selma (15 per cent), Fences (18 per cent), West Side Story (29 per cent) and Moonlight (75 per cent).
Just behind The Color Purple was another Oscar hopeful, Anatomy of a Fall, which Madman opened on 52 screens to $343,382 (an impressive screen average of $6,604), or $637,567 with previews/festival screenings. The Palme d’Or winner is up for five Oscars, including best film and best direction for Justine Triet.
Cinema Nova was Melbourne’s leading venue for the French drama, with CEO Kristian Connelly also noting the venue saw only marginal easing on other Oscar nominees Poor Things, The Holdovers and The Boy And The Heron, and boosts for Past Lives (for which Nova now accounts for more than 10 per cent of the national lifetime gross) and visual effects nominee Godzilla Minus One.
Numero data puts the weekend’s top 20 titles at $11.2 million, or 11 per cent down on the previous.
While 2024 started off stronger nationally than 2023, the last two weekends have been slower. Some exhibitors canvassed by IF report that the January holiday period has been somewhat hit and miss, while others are more positive.
Dell argues the 2024 summer has been consistent and more varied in content than recent years, but is still much softer overall than pre-COVID.
“While Wonka anchored the summer as expected with a solid result and Anyone But You and The Beekeeper and Mean Girls were over performers, and Aquaman performed as expected, the weakness was in the animated titles, which probably did about half the box office we were hoping from them. Some of the older skewing product did okay, other than Ferrari, but none really broke out for that audience segment.”
Wallis Cinemas head of programming services David Simpson tells IF that with the exception of Wonka and Migration, January was “middle of the road” for his South Australian circuit.
At the arthouse end of town, Connelly says the month has been “lucrative” for Nova with a number of attractive new titles and strong Q4 holdovers. In particular, he notes younger adult audiences have been drawn to “edgy titles” like Saltburn, All of Us Strangers, Bottoms and Poor Things, offsetting the dampened enthusiasm for moviegoing among older audiences post-pandemic.
“This same younger audience has clearly rediscovered the appeal of the cinema experience, which aligns to their ongoing interest in physical media, vintage clothing and analogue photography,” he says.
Connelly adds “challenges remain” when niche titles go ultra-wide, “where a more nuanced approach might have seen films rank higher at individual locations, thereby holding screens in later weeks”, but concedes Nova has ultimately been the beneficiary of the types of the larger distributor campaigns that typically accompany a wider berth.
“Distribution has generally achieved high prominence for theatrical releases while streaming releases given a theatrical release prior to landing on a platform a fortnight later lacked broad visibility,” he says.
“The importance of releasing closer to the US release – and leveraging off global awareness caused by online social chatter – has also been highlighted for selected titles, whether due to poor reviews or pirate downloads. This proves to be a challenge in itself, as waiting for expected awards glory can be a good reason to delay between markets.”
Of the holdovers, The Beekeeper came in at no. 4 in its third frame with $1.17 million, a dip of just 19 per cent on the previous weekend. Distributed by Roadshow, the Jason Statham-actioner has amassed $5.8 million so far.
Globally, receipts for The Beekeeper tally $US100 million, with some $US41.6 million from North America. Stateside, the film just missed out on last weekend’s top spot after a neck and neck race with Mean Girls, with the action film finishing at $US6.7 million to the musical’s $US6.9 million.
Here in Australia, Mean Girls grossed $1.1 million in its third weekend for Paramount, advancing to $5.8 million.
Universal’s Migration now stands at $14.3 million after taking $900,178 in its fifth frame, and globally has now crossed the $US200 million mark.
The Oscar-snubbed The Iron Claw dropped 30 per cent in its sophomore weekend, with $525,258 pushing its tally to $1.6 million for Roadshow.
WB/DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which has just reached $US400 million globally, has made $18.8 million in Australia after five weekends, having pocketing an extra $504,757. Disney’s Wish stands at $8.8 million, having drawn $396,578 in its fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 was Madman’s Priscilla, which despite missing out on Oscar nominations, eased only 29 per cent in its sophomore frame, with $372,036 taking the title to $1.4 million.
All Australian box office data is via Numero.