There was a lull in Australian films released theatrically in June so the total grosses for local titles this year has ticked up to only $42.95 million.
The Australian films released theatrically so far this year have grossed $42.6 million – nearly double the meagre 2016 calendar year total of $24.1 million.
The records smashed by doco 'John Farnham: Finding the Voice' have proven that Australians will still come out in numbers to see local stories on the big screen, and there is significant optimism among exhibitors about the commercial potential of 'Force of Nature: The Dry 2'. However, broadly the year so far has been a very slow one for Australian films at the box office.
The Australian-shot 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' has opened strongly grossing $3.78 million to take top spot at the box office while action-comedy 'The Fall Guy', which was also shot locally, has passed the $10 million mark.
Madman Entertainment's father-and-son comedy 'Made in Italy' and Icon's Mel Gibson-starrer 'Force of Nature' launched reasonably well last weekend but neither could match the market leader, Studiocanal's 'Unhinged' in its third frame.
Paramount’s live action/CGI adaptation of the Sega videogame 'Sonic the Hedgehog' won the weekend derby in Australia while the historic four Oscar wins paid off for Madman Entertainment's 'Parasite'.
As a spin-off, Universal’s 'Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw' was never destined to roar out of the starting blocks with the velocity as the previous editions of the franchise.
With Disney/Fox’s 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' invading cinemas this Thursday no distributor was brave – or foolish – enough to launch potentially lucrative titles last weekend.