By Brendan Swift
Peter Helliar's comedy I Love You Too has posted a solid opening weekend after taking more than $870,000 in cinemas.
The result places the Roadshow-distributed film in second place behind Hollywood blockbuster Iron Man 2, which took an impressive $4.57 million in just its second week.
I Love You Too, which stars Brendan Cowell and TV comedian Helliar (who also penned the script), posted a screen average of $3,836 across its 228 screens. It cost $6 million to produce the film, which tells the story of the emotionally-stunted Jim (Cowell), and his faltering relationship with Alice (Yvonne Strahovski).
"Massive thanks to all those who saw ILU2 on the weekend," Helliar wrote via Twitter. "Off to a great start!!"
War film Beneath Hill 60, which also stars Brendan Cowell in the lead role, added a further $227,475 to become the second highest grossing film at the box office this year. It has now passed the $2.63 million mark although musical Bran Nue Dae remains well ahead after taking just over $7.5 million.
Beneath Hill 60's screen average has now fallen to $1,404 across its 162 screens. The film had a production budget of about $9.5 million.
Meanwhile, the Victorian-shot coming of age drama Playing For Charlie opened across just one screen and took $2,665.
Among other Australian fare, psychological thriller Triangle took a further $1,966 in its second weekend across three screens while black comedy Accidents Happen added a further $9,911 across 17 screens in its third weekend.
|
Film
|
Budget
|
Distributor
|
Opening w/e
|
Box Office
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bran Nue Dae
|
$6.5m
|
Roadshow
|
$1,612,102
|
$7,509,061
|
|
Beneath Hill 60
|
$9.5m
|
Paramount/Transmission
|
$548,694
|
$2,639,272
|
|
Daybreakers
|
$20m est.
|
Hoyts
|
$1,064,244
|
$2,448,050
|
|
Bright Star
|
$16.7m est.
|
Roadshow/Hopscotch
|
–
|
$2,157,601
|
|
I Love You Too
|
$6m
|
Roadshow
|
$113,483
|
$874,533
|
|
Accidents Happen
|
–
|
Hopscotch
|
$39,721
|
$117,265
|
|
Girl Clock!
|
$1m
|
Self-distributed
|
$8,857
|
$43,340
|
|
Separation City
|
$4.8m
|
Hoyts
|
$15,278
|
$32,159
|
|
Triangle
|
–
|
Icon
|
$6,081
|
$10,165
|
|
Going Vertical
|
–
|
The Pack/Blue Sea Films
|
$3,879
|
$9,439
|
|
Playing For Charlie
|
–
|
The Pack
|
$2,665
|
$2,665
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
$15,843,550
|
Source: MPDAA, INSIDEFILM. Separation City is a NZ film. Bright Star released Dec 26, 2009; tally does not include 2009 box office.