By Brendan Swift
New Zealand's Boy has posted a positive opening weekend at the Australian box office although local drama Matching Jack has continued to struggle to attract audiences.
The coming-of-age tale is already New Zealand's highest grossing local film in history and took $275,026 across 41 Australian screens over the weekend, for a healthy screen average of $6,708.
The film was an audience favourite at the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered earlier this year, and was written and directed by Taika Waititi.
Meanwhile, local drama Matching Jack took a further $189,543 – a 27 per cent drop in its second weekend. The film's distributor Fox maintained its screen count at 186 screens sending its screen average down to $1019.
Mao's Last Dancer has continued to perform well at the North American box office since opening on August 26, reaching $US1,193,813. The film was last year's biggest earner at the Australian box office.
Melbourne crime drama Animal Kingdom, which was released in the US on August 13, has now reached $US372,511 according to Box Office Mojo.
Australasian Films at the box office 2010
|
Film
|
Budget
|
Distributor
|
Opening w/e
|
Box Office
|
|
Bran Nue Dae
|
$6.5m
|
Roadshow
|
$1,612,102
|
$7,565,476
|
|
The Kings of Mykonos
|
$6m est.
|
Paramount/Transmission
|
$1,828,902
|
$4,896,679
|
|
Animal Kingdom
|
$5m est.
|
Madman
|
$604,139
|
$4,833,174
|
|
Beneath Hill 60
|
$9.5m
|
Paramount/Transmission
|
$548,694
|
$3,209,471
|
|
Daybreakers
|
$20m est.
|
Hoyts
|
$1,064,244
|
$2,448,050
|
|
I Love You Too
|
$6m
|
Roadshow
|
$113,483
|
$2,361,411
|
|
Bright Star
|
$16.7m est.
|
Roadshow/Hopscotch
|
–
|
$2,157,601
|
|
The Waiting City
|
$2m est.
|
Hopscotch
|
$136,892
|
$626,896
|
|
Matching Jack
|
$5m est.
|
Fox
|
$258,011
|
$615,230
|
|
South Solitary
|
$7m est
|
Icon
|
$132,240
|
$529,353
|
|
Boy
|
–
|
Paramount/Transmission
|
$275,026
|
$356,392
|
|
Accidents Happen
|
$6.5m est.
|
Hopscotch
|
$39,721
|
$157,131
|
|
Love, Lust & Lies
|
–
|
Beyond Entertainment
|
$20,674
|
$136,595
|
|
Second Hand Wedding
|
–
|
Potential/Arkles
|
$13,680
|
$72,650
|
|
Lou
|
–
|
Kojo Pictures
|
$27,371
|
$59,505
|
|
Girl Clock!
|
$1m
|
Self-distributed
|
$8,857
|
$43,434
|
|
Separation City
|
$4.8m
|
Hoyts
|
$15,278
|
$32,159
|
|
Triangle
|
$8m est.
|
Icon
|
$6,081
|
$11,282
|
|
Going Vertical
|
–
|
The Pack/Blue Sea Films
|
$3,879
|
$9,699
|
|
Savages Crossing
|
$3.5m
|
MediaKin/GAP
|
$4,432
|
$8,651
|
|
The Nothing Men
|
Anchor Bay Films
|
$4,518
|
$6,579
|
|
|
Playing For Charlie
|
$1.2m
|
The Pack
|
$2,665
|
$5,867
|
|
The Horseman
|
$500,000
|
Umbrella Entertainment
|
$2,270
|
$3,328
|
Source: MPDAA, INSIDEFILM. Separation City, Second Hand Wedding and Boy are NZ films. Bright Star released Dec 26, 2009; tally does not include 2009 box office.