Blondes, bombs, and underwater bites continue to reign at the Australian box office, with the top three films of Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Meg 2: The Trench holding their positions from last week.
Universal’s Strays, about an abandoned dog who teams up with other strays to get revenge on his former owner, found a home at number four with $845,558 from 325 screens for an average of $2,602 per session, but was the only new entry to crack the top ten.
According to data from Numero, the takings from the top 20 titles took another dip, coming in at 11.6 million, representing a 31 per cent decrease from last week.
However, there is still no shortage of momentum for Warner Bros. Mattel-inspired story, which added another $4.1 million in its fifth frame to reach $76 million.
Coming in a distant but still impressive second was Universal’s biographical thriller with a further $2 million, also from its fifth weekend, to reach $34.5 million overall.
WB’s follow up to The Meg was the only other film in the top ten to break $1 million, drawing $1.2 million from its third outing to reach $7.1 million overall.
Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieran Dell noted that the attention on the finals of the Women’s World Cup may have contributed to a “relatively soft weekend”, but said the pulling power of Barbenheimer remained strong.
“Barbenheimer, in particular the Barbie part of it, continues to drive our box office,” he said.
“Barbie alone is still accounting for over a third of box office and has continued strongly, while the combination of the two is not too far under 50 per cent. The Meg 2 held up extraordinarily well in its third weekend, coming in a clear second at the box office and confirming that people are up for some silly entertainment with lots of action. Strays had a creditable opening in third, just ahead of Oppenheimer. Unfortunately, some of the other recent titles, like Gran Turismo, Asteroid City, and Dracula : Voyage of the Demeter are not finding an audience.”
Sony’s Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story was not completely forgotten in its second weekend, taking in $812,670, a dip of 37 per cent from its opening weekend.
It was followed by Maslow Entertainment’s Aussie horror Talk To Me, which brought in a respectable $362,478 to move past $3 million in its fourth frame.
Indian title Gadar 2 recorded a better weekend than that of its debut to jump up to seventh place, earning $342,784 in its sophomore outing – an increase of 8 per cent.
Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One maintained eighth position with $309,793 from its sixth phase to take its overall total to $20.5 million.
Tamil-language Jailer, released by MKS Retail, suffered the biggest dip of the top ten, garnering $271,937, a 74 per cent drop from its $1 million debut last week.
Fellow second week release Asteroid City from Universal dipped nearly 50 per cent from its opening with $250,041.
Of the other new releases, Trafalgar Releasing’s live concert experience Metallica M72 World Tour Live from TX made $146,053 from 90 screens for an average of $1,623 per session, while Paramount’s tech true story Blackberry took in $63,447 from 58 screens, averaging $1,094 per session, and Palace’s Danish drama Godland managed $41,240 from just 19 screens, recording an impressive average of $2,171.
Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly said while the likes BlackBerry and Godland were challenged by the final weekend of the Melbourne International Film Festival, the interest in Barbie, Asteroid City, Oppenheimer, and Talk To Me all eased by small margins due to continued word-of-mouth support.
“Cinema Nova was the top-grossing site nationally on Asteroid City and BlackBerry, while Barbie narrows in on becoming Cinema Nova’s sixth biggest film at the box office by the end of this week, overtaking Hunt For The Wilderpeople.”
Australian box office data is sourced via Numero.