In North America, Paramount’s Babylon has been labelled a box office bomb. Australian audiences, so far at least, seem to be a little more enthused by Damien Chazelle’s starry latest about the excess of 1920s Hollywood.
Pro-rata, the Australian debut of $1.3 million from 324 screens ($1.5 with previews) last weekend is miles ahead of the US/Canada. There, it opened on December 23 to a paltry $US3.6 million ($US4.85 million 4-day) and has a current cume of $US15.2 million.
Babylon includes a heavy-hitting cast of Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Tobey Macguire and Diego Calva and despite mixed reviews, it is still considered a contender when Oscar nominations are announced later this week.
Robbie and Calva have participated in an extensive publicity tour for the film in Australia for Paramount over the past week and a half, including a black tie premiere event in Sydney, no doubt lifting its profile among local audiences.
“While Babylon delivered above pro-rata thanks to a successful star tour, it struggled to overcome the negative buzz broadcast by some in the media following the US opening,” Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly tells IF.
“It frustrates me to see so many local reporters jockeying to call ‘time of death’ on theatrical releases before they’ve been released in the Australian market.
“As both exhibition and distribution are both aware, local tastes can run contrary to the US market but with (regularly uninformed) commentary obsessed with being first to declare ‘hit’ or ‘bomb’ – and with vastly more attention on the latter – audiences are being told ‘steer clear’ because of overseas box office results. This is made all the more frustrating when the same outlets now devote so little output into film reviews.”
While noting that Babylon performed “far far better” pro-rata in Australia than in the US, Village Cinemas national programming manager Geoff Chard laments to IF that compared to Chazelle’s previous films of La La Land and First Man, “the results are softer than we would have hoped.”
Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell found Babylon had a slow start on his independent circuit, as he had expected given the US result, an MA15+ rating and a 3 hour, 9 minute run time.
“It certainly polarised those who did see it, with some absolutely loving it and others walking out before the end,” he tells IF.
Wallis Cinemas David Simpson muses: “There was always going to be a love/hate feeling towards Babylon, like all things Chazelle, and this one was basically over before it started.”
Babylon was the only new release to enter the top 10 over the weekend, with the box office continuing to be dominated by Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
Numero data puts the top 20 titles at $13 million, down 15 per cent on the previous.
Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water remained the no. 1 title for the sixth weekend running, with a $4 million result pushing the film to $81.4 million. It will imminently overtake Spider-Man: No Way Home, which finished on $81.7 million, to become the fifth-highest grossing film to be released in Australia.
Overall, Avatar: The Way of Water is now the sixth highest grossing film ever worldwide, having crossed the $US2 billion mark, and is predicted to shortly surpass Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The top six also includes two other films by Cameron, the original Avatar and Titanic.
Australia is the seventh highest grossing international market for the film, with the the top market outside North America proving to be China, where it has made $US229.7 million.
Chard predicts The Way of Water will easily surpass Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($94 million) to be the second highest grossing film of all time in Australia.
“It’s now just a question of when and not if James Cameron has the top two highest-grossing films in Australia of all time (a record he previously held for a few years with Titanic in second place),” he says
On The Way of Water‘s success, Connelly reiterates his frustration with box office commentary in parts of the national consumer media.
“A national outlet published a story following the opening weekend of Avatar: The Way Of Water, labelling the movie a ‘disappointment’. With that film now on-track to become one of the biggest films ever released in this country the same outlet hasn’t published a single follow-up to update readers on Avatar: TWOW’s stellar results nor to correct the record,” he says.
“While exhibition is still releasing vastly less titles than prior to the pandemic due to production slowdowns, Australian cinemas are regularly outperforming key indicator markets. It begs the question as to why some on the sidelines of this industry approach commentary on it with apparent prejudice.”
The second spot once again went to Universal’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which has been the standout performer among the family titles in the market for school holidays. The film dipped only 1 per cent in its fourth frame to $1.9 million, meaning it now sits just shy of $16 million overall.
Universal/Blumhouse horror M3GAN also looks to have legs, with a second weekend result of $1.2 million, down just 36 per cent on its debut. The film, now at $4.1 million, is based on a story by Aussie James Wan and writer Akela Cooper, with Wan also producing via his banner Atomic Monster.
Guy Ritchie caper Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre also had a good second outing, dipping 32 per cent to $1.1 million for Roadshow, advancing to $4 million.
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile has now cracked the $10 million mark for Sony after earning an additional $1 million over its fourth weekend. Like The Last Wish, its popularity among families barely waned, with the $1 million result down only 2 per cent on the previous weekend.
Sony stablemate A Man Called Otto also continues to resonate with adult audiences, earning $646,393 in its fourth frame to move to $5.6 million.
Disney’s Oscar contender The Banshees of Inisherin collected $371,429 in its fourth, a dip of just 13 per cent, seeing the dark tragicomedy move to $3.6 million.
Sony’s Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody sits just shy of $5 million after four weekends, having earned another $230,610.
Warner Bros.’ Mummies crept back into the top 10 with a third frame result of $198,454 bringing the animated title to $1.2 million.
Local title Blueback, directed by Robert Connolly and distributed by Roadshow, crept up to 11th position from last weekend’s 13th. It earned $168,421 in its fourth frame, down only 22 per cent, moving to $1.8 million.
Emily, the directorial debut of British-Australian director Frances O’Connor, produced by Connolly’s Arenamedia, earned $63,466 in its second frame for Madman, taking it to $355,217.