Kung Fu Panda 4 and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continued to hold the momentum at the box office, despite school holidays wrapping up in some parts of the country, retaining their top two positions from the previous weekend.
Universal’s fourth installment of the animated franchise took in another $2 million to move to $19.9 million after four weeks of release while Warner Bros. Queensland-shot Monsterverse sequel managed $1.3 million for a gross total of $16.5 million from the same period.
It meant Warner Bros. tennis drama Challengers had to settle for third place, having served up $880,855 on its opening weekend from 330 screens for an average of $2,669 per session.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Zendaya as a former tennis prodigy turned coach married to a champion on a losing streak, with her husband going up against his former best friend and her former boyfriend.
Other new releases included Universal’s Abigail, about a group of would-be criminals that kidnap the 12-year-old daughter of a powerful underworld figure only to discover their young captive is a vampire, which could only make its mark in sixth place with $648,328 from 266 screens for an average of $2,437 per session.
There was also Sony and Crunchyroll’s anime spy comedy/action film Spy x Family Code: White, which bowed to $414,482 from 182 screens to record a screen average of $2,277 per session and occupy ninth position on the list.
Of the Australian films, Maslow Entertainment’s Late Night With the Devil drew $123,622 from its sophomore outing, representing a drop of 49 per cent from its opening weekend. Globally, the film has now crossed US$10 million.
With regard to the weekend’s takings, Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly said key films performed to expectations with Challengers topping the titles at the site.
“Response to the sexy drama was outstanding with sessions eliciting spontaneous applause from the audience,” he said.
“Word of mouth similarly saw Civil War, Perfect Days, and Monkey Man all held or enjoyed a modest uptick. Genre title Late Night With The Devil eased respectably.”
Village Cinemas national programming manager Geoff Chard described the weekend as “pretty quiet”, noting that while Challengers and Abigail had performed below initial forecasts, the holds on continuing titles were respectable.
“We are now eagerly awaiting this coming Wednesday’s opening of the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action comedy The Fall Guy, with the bonus public holiday on Thursday,” he said.
Australian box office data is via Numero.
Australian films box office performance (2024)
| Film | Budget (est) | Distributor | Opening w/e | Weeks | Box office |
| Force of Nature: The Dry 2 | – | Roadshow | $1.6m | 11 | $7.3m |
| The Trust Fall: Julian Assange | Independent | 13 | $322,674 | ||
| Late Night With The Devil | Madman | $242,000 | 2 | $566,470 | |
| Before Dawn | $10m | Umbrella | $99,971 | 3 | $221,819 |
| Just a Farmer | $1.9m | VAM Paddock Productions | $40,070 | 5 | $124,518 |
| TOTAL | $8.4m |
Films shot in Australia box office performance (2024)
| Film | Budget (est) | Distributor | Opening w/e | Weeks | Box office |
| Anyone But You | $US25m | Sony | 15 | $22.64m | |
| Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | $US135-$US150m | Warner Bros. | $5.6m | 2 | $16.55m |
| TOTAL | $37.19m |