Jason Statham shark thriller Meg 2: The Trench may have opened significantly below the 2018 original in North America, but here in Australia, receipts were almost on par. That said, the sequel was no match at all for the continued phenomenon that is Barbenheimer.
Meg 2, a Warner Bros. and China Media Capital co-production, landed at third place with a solid $3.2 million from 358 screens, not too far below 2018’s $3.6 million. Pro-rata, Australia slightly outperformed the US/Canada, where it bowed to $US30 million, well off the original’s $45 million. China proved the top territory with $US53.3 million, with the global tally standing at $US142 million.
The campy film has been plagued by poor reviews, with just a 28 per cent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the audience score is significantly better at 73 per cent.
Wallis Cinemas programming manager David Simpson described the numbers for Meg 2 as “jawsome”, and Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell tells IF it even outperformed Oppenheimer for second place at his theatres in regional NSW and Queensland – “with Barbie still first of course by a country mile.”
According to Numero data, the top 20 titles generated $22.8 million last weekend, down 21 per cent on the previous.
Some 50 per cent of that figure was captured by Barbie, with a third weekend of result of $11.5 million (a dip of just 34 per cent) pushing the film to $60.9 million. That officially makes it the highest grossing film released this year so far, as well as the biggest WB film ever released in Australia.
Globally, Greta Gerwig’s take on the iconic doll has crossed the $US1 billion mark in just 17 days, making it the sixth film of the pandemic era to do so along with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion and Avatar: The Way of Water. Gerwig is also now the first ever solo female director to have a $US1 billion film.
Universal’s Oppenheimer has now reached $27.3 million after taking $5.2 million in its third. The Christopher Nolan film has crossed the $US500 million mark worldwide.
Oppenheimer is now the fourth highest grossing film of all time at Sydney’s Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace and GM Alex Temesvari predicts it will move up to second place this weekend. Barbie is also about to crack its top 10.
“Barbenheimer keeps going strong for us as we were only 16 per cent down on last week,” Temesvari says.
In addition to Meg 2, the weekend’s other new releases included Transmission’s Irish comedy The Miracle Club, which bowed in seventh place to a modest $280,859 from 169 screens, or $398,085 with previews.
Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly tells IF has been hard to think of a title more accessible to an older audience of late and questions why the “widely-screened and heartwarming film” didn’t enjoy the audience it deserved.
“Transmission booked a high-visibility campaign highlighting stars Maggie Smith, Laura Linney and Kathy Bates but with the exception of those metropolitan venues that traditionally skew toward an older demographic, the film appears to have performed best in regional and outer-suburban venues,” he observes.
As the owner of a regional circuit, Dell says The Miracle Club added some diversity for the older audience, “albeit I had 80+ year old women telling me they were going to Barbie, fuelling great weekday business.”
Chinese boxing drama Never Say Never, distributed by China Lion Film, came in at 10th place with $88,305 from just 29 screens, or $92,180 with previews.
The weekend also saw Australian doco Rachel’s Farm released in all states except Victoria (where it will release this Thursday, bringing in $37,738 from 32 screens, or $99,973 with previews (director and subject Rachel Ward has done an extensive Q&A tour).
“We had Rachel’s Farm at the three sites on the Mid North Coast that are near the actual farm, and we had sellout Q&A sessions with Rachel the previous weekend, however the season started slowly as perhaps a lot of people were interested to see Rachel in the flesh,” Dell says.
Of the holdovers, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One landed at fourth position with $868,406, advancing to $19.4 million.
Australian horror Talk to Me, the debut feature of Danny and Michael Phillipou, held remarkably well through its second weekend, easing only 15 per cent to $665,669. Now at $1.9 million for Maslow Entertainment, it should soon overtake Blueback ($2.2 million) to become the second highest grossing local film of the year. In the US, the film has grossed $US22.1 million.
Connelly notes Talk to Me saw a 27 per cent uptick at Cinema Nova as audiences got around to seeing it after Barbenheimer.
“Word of mouth on Talk To Me is stellar, with feedback being that viewers are enjoying the film far in excess of their expectations. We anticipate Talk To Me will enjoy a long season,” he says.
While opening weekend had been soft for the horror at Majestic Cinemas, Dell also reports an uptick of 20 per cent.
“Having watched the film myself with a group of younger people on the weekend, it was great to see our young people seeing their own accent and peers on the big screen,” he says.
Indian romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani also had a great hold, dipping just 11 per cent to $360,594. Its stickiness is even more impressive considering the film lost 35 screens over its second frame – it remains on 45. Overall the Garage Star title stands at $992,017.
Disney’s Elemental has reached $16.6 million after an eight weekend result of $223,057, while stablemate Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is at $15.9 million after taking $179,302 in its sixth.
Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy remains in the top 20, ringing up $33,539 in its fifth weekend to advance to $770,844 for Roadshow.
Looking ahead, Simpson says previews for Sony’s Gran Turismo have shown “assurance” for the coming weekend.
Connelly is also positive, noting that Nova has defied the annual drop in trade it experiences due to the commencement of the Melbourne International Film Festival, and staff are reporting customers as not only having seen the buzzy films but now catching up on many films long into their seasons.
“If this anecdotal advice holds, the imminent arrival of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and those films we have high hopes for post-festival might see audiences return to their regular movie-going rhythm.”
Australian box office data is sourced via Numero.