After just two weekends, John Farnham: Finding the Voice has officially become the highest grossing Australian documentary of all time (excluding IMAX).
Following a strong debut at the box office last weekend, Finding the Voice held well across its second frame, earning $655,629 – a dip of just 20 per cent – to advance to $2.24 million.
The Sony title has proved to be effective counter-programming against US blockbusters The Little Mermaid, Fast X and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, coming in at fourth position overall.
The weekend’s result means Finding the Voice has now quickly surpassed the lifetime gross of other Australian documentaries Mountain ($2.03 million), That Sugar Film ($1.7 million), and Bra Boys ($1.69 million). The only local docs to ever earn more are IMAX films Antarctica ($5.2 million) and Africa’s Elephant Kingdom ($3.5 million), both of which are 40 minutes – so Finding the Voice is the highest-grossing Aussie feature-length doc.
The impact of the Poppy Stockell-directed film is also being felt beyond the big screen, with its soundtrack debuting at no. 2 on the ARIA album charts last weekend.
Sony Pictures EVP ANZ Stephen Basil-Jones describes it as “unstoppable”.
“What a weekend for John Farnham.”
Village Cinemas national programming manager Geoff Chard tells IF the hold on the film was very impressive.
“Sony’s continued campaign on this film has been an outstanding success, and there is still plenty of life left in the film. Given it’s grossed $2.2m already, it potentially take $4m+ in cinemas,” he says.
Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell agrees, noting the film has been “outstanding” in terms of performance.
“It could easily exceed $3 million and head towards $4 million given the great feedback,” he tells IF.
Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly reports selected sessions came close to selling out at the Nova as “stellar word of mouth” spreads.
Wallis Cinemas programming manager David Simpson notes the film is doing best in day trade, but says it’s “reassuring” that older audiences are coming out to see it.
The weekend’s no. 1 title was Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, which took $5.8 million, or $6.1 million with previews.
Directed by Rob Marshall, Halle Bailey leads the film as title character Ariel, alongside Melissa McCarthy as Ursula the sea witch, with whom Ariel trades her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King). The cast also includes Javier Bardem, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay and Daveed Diggs.
In North America The Little Mermaid bowed at $US117.5 million over four days; it’s Memorial Day weekend in the US. International markets have been slower, bringing in $US68.3 million.
Deadline reports the remake has been subject to review bombing in various foreign markets such as France, Korea and the UK, noting “some gripes have been about murky lighting or even just the why of it all when remaking a classic” as well as “racially-tinged commentary.”
A warning on IMDB in UK, Brazil and Mexico reads: “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.”
While the Australian figures are a little below the US pro-rata, Dell chalks that up to the Memorial Day holiday. He predicts the film will play right through the King’s Birthday holiday in June and upcoming school holidays.
“The Little Mermaid was strong with a mostly female audience of all ages and great feedback,” he says.
While satisfied with the results, Chard says Village had been hoping for numbers more similar to 2019’s Aladdin, which bowed to $7.6 million and went on to take $35 million.
“It seems to be skewing more towards the younger family demographic, so we have seen great results across our Vjunior cinemas,” he says.
The weekend also saw a number of other new releases, though none could be accused of setting the world on fire.
The highest earner was Universal’s horror comedy Renfield, about Dracula (Nicolas Cage) and his titular assistant (Nicholas Hoult). It opened at no. 7 with $304,190 from 224 screens, with an added $2,000 bump from previews.
Exhibitors were unimpressed with the results, with Simpson stating “even as a filler title the numbers were gruesome.”
Transmission’s Maybe I Do premiered just behind, with $201,613 from 150 screens, or $239,932 with previews. The starry romantic comedy includes Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy and follows young couple Michelle (Emma Roberts) and Allen (Australia’s Luke Bracey) as they finally decide to have their parents meet to talk about marriage, only to they discover they already know each other.
Dell says the film performed well at most of Majestic’s sites, other than those that lean more to a younger demographic.
Sony released Bert Kreischer action comedy The Machine on just 50 screens to $100,325, coming in at no. 9, while rounding out the top 10 was Indian comedy Godday Godday Chaa, which grossed $99,641 for Zee Studios from just 30 screens.
“Renfield’s opening weekend was in line with expectations given the US release last month. Maybe I Do opened to just over $200k; I suspect this impacted by the continuing success of Finding The Voice and Book Club 2: The Next Chapter. Godday Godday Chaa was an interesting one; may of our sites actually increased every day which means we should see a strong holdover into week 2,” reflects Chard.
Overall the top 20 titles grossed $13.9 million, up 3 per cent on the previous weekend, according to Numero.
Of the holdovers, Universal’s Fast X dropped 49 per cent in its sophomore outing to $3.4 million, moving to $11.6 million. The film has crossed $US500 million globally, while the Fast & Furious franchise is now a $US7 billion franchise.
Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 rang up $2.2 million in its fourth frame, advancing to $27.3 million.
Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, now eight weekends in, came in at no. 5 with $414,033, moving to $50.9 million. The result means it has now surpassed Shrek 2 ($50.39 million) to become the highest grossing animation ever released in Australia.
Stablemate Book Club 2: The Next Chapter took home $340,853 in its third frame, taking it past the $3 million mark.
Of the other Australian titles in release, Ivan Sen’s Limbo stayed in the top 20 in its second weekend. Distributed by Bonsai Films/Dark Matter Distribution, it dropped just 20 per cent to $39,310, bringing its total to $137,591.
Madman documentary Giants is at $486,903 after six weeks, having brought in another $19,582.
This weekend Roadshow will release Jub Clerc’s highly-decorated debut feature, Sweet As. Connelly reports the film drew a “decent crowd” during advance screenings at the Nova.