‘Geostorm’.
It’s rare to see three Hollywood films open wide and belly-flop on the same weekend at Australian cinemas but it was a near-disaster for Geostorm and a total wipe-out for The Snowman and Home Again.
That was no surprise to distributors or exhibitors as Geostorm and The Snowman bombed in the US and international markets while Home Again is limping towards US$27 million after six weekends in the States.
Given the weakness of the Hollywood product, new Indian titles Mersal and Golmaal Again and Belgian/French animated comedy The Son of Bigfoot ranked in the top 10.
The third premium VOD release following Australia Day and The Girl With All the Gifts, Transmission Films’ The Limehouse Golem, took just $11,000 on eight screens and $24,000 including a British Film Festival screening last year.
The British horror/mystery, which stars Bill Nighy as a detective who is assigned to the case of a serial killer who leaves behind mutilated corpses, will be available to rent for $19.95 from October 25 until December 12 on Dendy Marquee and also on Foxtel Store. Australia Day grossed $52,000 while The Girl With all the Gifts has earned a mere $14,000.
The top 20 films collected $9.6 million last weekend, down 7 per cent on the previous weekend, according to Numero.
Warner Bros/Sky Dance’s Geostorm, a suspense thriller starring Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara and Daniel Wu, rang up $1.5 million at 237 locations.
Pro-rata that was marginally better than the estimated three day domestic haul of $US13.3 million, a terrible start for a film which marks the feature directing debut of Dean Devlin, producer of Independence Day, Godzilla and The Patriot – particularly in light of the reported $140 million budget.
Sony’s Blade Runner 2049 ranked second despite plunging by 45 per cent to $1.4 million in its third weekend at 302 locations. That brings the total for the reboot directed by Dennis Villeneuve to a decent but not dazzling $10.5 million. The US total is a modest $74 million and the international haul is $120 million, with China and Japan opening next weekend.
Word-of-mouth isn’t great for Fox’s survival thriller/romance The Mountain Between Us, judging by its $941,000 second weekend at 267 cinemas, falling by 45 per cent. The Kate Winslet-Idris Elba starrer directed by Hany Abu-Assad has pocketed a lousy $3.4 million.
The Snowman, the Universal Pictures/Working Title Films crime thriller based on Jo Nesbø’s bestseller starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Gainsbourg, fired blanks, taking $848,000 at 241 in Oz and $3.4 million in the US.
Director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) blamed the shooting schedule, telling the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp: “Our shoot time in Norway was way too short. We didn’t get the whole story with us and when we started cutting we discovered that a lot was missing. It’s like when you’re making a big jigsaw puzzle and a few pieces are missing so you don’t see the whole picture.”
Sorry Tomas, that’s a cop-out: the buck stops with you. This is the sixth Fassbender film in the in the past 12 months following The Light Between Oceans, Assassin’s Creed, Trespass Against Us, Alien: Covenant and Song to Song, none of which has enhanced his reputation as a box-office draw.
Happy Death Day, Universal/Blumhouse Productions’ micro-budgeted horror/comedy directed by Christopher B. Landon, collected $796,000 in its second weekend at 215, off 44 per cent, advancing to $2.6 million.
Released by eOne, Home Again, a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, Michael Sheen, Pico Alexander, Nat Wolff, Jon Rudnitsky and Candice Bergen, fetched $713,000 at 233 and $764,000 with previews. Withering reviews for the film, the writing and directing debut of Hallie Meyers-Shyer, the daughter of filmmakers Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, did not help its commercial prospects. Many critics suggested Hallie was trying to emulate her mother’s hits such as The Holiday, The Intern, Something’s Gotta Give and her dad’s The Parent Trap and failed miserably.
Fox’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle climbed to $18.4 million after earning $587,000 million in its fifth frame at 245, dropping by 47 per cent.
Hindi director Rohit Shetty’s slapstick horror-comedy Golmaal Again, the fourth edition of the hit franchise, which features Ajay Devgn, Parineeti Chopra, Tusshar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Kunal Kemmu, Shreyas Talpade and Tabu, rang up $272,000 on 33 screens for Mind Blowing Films.
Mersal, Tamil director Atlee Kumar’s action thriller about two brothers, a magician and a doctor who reunite to avenge their father’s death, starring Vijay and Sathyaraj, conjured up $268,000 from 27 screens and $401,000 with previews for distributor MKS Retail.
Studiocanal launched The Son of Bigfoot, the saga of a teenager who discovers his long-lost father is the legendary Bigfoot, co-directed by Jeremy Degruson and Ben Stassen, on Saturday at 227 locations, generating $230,000 in two days, a fair result for an alternate content release.
Checking the cumes of other Aussie titles in release: Mountain has amassed $1.9 million, Ali’s Wedding $1.1 million, Don’t Tell $406,000, Rip Tide $358,000, All For One $292,000 and Whiteley $258,000. Blue has taken $61,000 after two weekends and Namatjira Project $53,000.