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English lads rule, Cameron sinks

Crass comedy in the form of The Inbetweeners 2 ruled the Australian box-office last weekend while James Cameron's Deepsea Challenge 3D sank ingloriously.

Doctor Who fans turned out in reasonable numbers for the Sunday cinema screening of the first episode of series 8 while Nick Cave’s new dramatised documentary had its admirers.

Nationwide takings slipped by 4% to $12.6 million, according to Rentrak’s estimates, as four titles each pulled in more than $1 million.

The Australian location of the Inbetweeners sequel no doubt contributed to the comedy’s strapping $3.15 million debut, $3.25 million including previews. That was 10% bigger than the 2011 opening of the original, which wound up earning $9.2 million.

Superhero fans are still discovering Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which breezed through its third outing fetching $2.7 million (down 36%), which propels its haul to $19.1 million.

Word-of-mouth is sustaining romantic drama The Hundred-Foot Journey, which eased by just 16% to $1.7 million, banking a hearty $5.7 million in 11 days.

The Expendables 3 lost half its audience in the second weekend, perhaps indicating lousy word-of-mouth, taking $901,000, to lift its total to a mediocre $3.2 million.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath conjured up $629,000 at 146 screens.

The faith-based movie Freedom, which chronicles the search for freedom by two men separated by 100 years of history, starring Cuba Gooding Jr and directed by Australia's Peter Cousens, launched on an ambitiously wide 98 screens and delivered a modest $124,000.

Felix Herngren’s comedy/road movie The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared got some effusive reviews but audiences were less impressed, judging by its $108,000 bow on 35 screens, and $165,000 with previews.

James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge 3D, which follows Cameron diving to the deepest spot in the ocean, took a feeble $93,000 on 55 screens, $102,000 with advance screenings. That’s no surprise considering the documentary directed by John Bruno with Ray Quint sank without trace in the US two weeks ago after averaging less than $500 per screen on 300 locations.

By contrast, 20,000 Days on Earth, an intimate look at the artistic process that follows a fictional day in the life of musician Nick Cave, featuring Cave, Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone, whistled up $74,000 from only 12 cinemas, and $135,000 with festival screenings.

In Search of Chopin, Phil Grabsky’s doco on the Polish composer is the latest art-house dud, making $25,000 at 18 screens.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Aug 21-24

 

 

Title

 

Week/ Screens

 

Box Office

 

% +-

 

Total

 

1

The Inbetweeners 2

1/308

$3,155,050

NA

$3,246,089

2

Guardians of the Galaxy

3/480

2,733,263

-36

19,093,493

3

The Hundred-Foot Journey

2/320

1,763,587

-16

5,742,710

4

                  Lucy

4/259

1,142,714

-34

12,972,765

5

The Expendables 3

2/303

900,710

-50

3,184,507

6

Doctor Who: Deep Breath

1/146

629,219

NA

629,219

7

Begin Again

3/90

306,429

+4

979,360

8

Hercules

5/127

136,562

-61

8,030,205

9

Freedom

1/98

124,356

NA

124,356

10

A Most Wanted Man

4/43

120,586

-33

1,124,689

Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia