With the school holidays officially at an end, Fast and Furious 5 has sped past the competition to become the highest grossing film at the holiday box office, taking in $18.5 million in only two weeks.
The film, which gave Universal its biggest Australian opening weekend ever, beat out the god of Thunder, a pair of Brazilian parrots, and a lovable British billionaire to earn the top spot.
Fast and Furious 5, which stars Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, grossed $4.1 million across 379 screens in its second weekend, giving it a respectable screen average of $10,828.
Ranking second over the weekend but third at the holiday box office overall, Kenneth Branagh's Thor – starring Aussie Chris Hemsworth – made $3 million across 391 screens.
Thor has made $15 million since its release on April 21.
"It's a very sort of classical tale, like the Prodigal son, like the Odysseus tale," Branagh told IF at the film's world premiere.
"He gets exiled, he must return with wisdom, how's he going to do it? Well, meeting Natalie Portman might help him with that."
Rio was Easter's most successful animated film, even beating out Hop, a story about the Easter Bunny.
Still playing at 457 screens after four weeks, the Macaw-oriented family film took in almost $1.1 million over the weekend, while Hop could be seen on 246 screens – dropping down ten from last week.
Bieber fever in Australia is starting to wane, with the film making an average of just $1074 across 182 screens. Meanwhile Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, which features work by Australia's Animal Logic has dropped 34 screens since last weekend, and had a screen average of just $758.
Roadshow's Rabbit Hole has become a surprise sleeper hit, reaching its eleventh week at the box office with a total gross of more than $800,000. The film, which earned Nicole Kidman an Academy Award nomination, can be seen on 19 screens across the country.
Australian films at the local box office in 2011:
|
Film
|
Budget
|
Distributor
|
Opening w/e
|
Box Office
|
|
Sanctum
|
$30m
|
Universal
|
$1,595,021
|
$3,838,154
|
|
Wasted On The Young
|
|
Paramount
|
$52,118
|
$138,724
|
|
Griff The Invisible
|
$2m
|
Paramount/Transmission
|
$66,344
|
$198,072
|
|
The Reef
|
$3.8m
|
Pinnacle Films
|
$58,196
|
$124,764
|
|
A Heartbeat Away
|
$7m
|
Hoyts
|
$44,204
|
$118,658
|
Source: IF, MPDAA