Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as mismatched cops proved far more appealing than Guillermo del Toro’s creature feature in Australian cinemas over the weekend.
The Heat, the raunchy comedy about an FBI agent and a detective in pursuit of a drug lord, topped the B.O. in its debut, earning nearly $3.9 million, shading the fourth weekend of Despicable Me 2. The animated film raked in $3.7 million, elevating its total to a lucrative $29.7 million.
Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, the $190 million-budgeted saga of a battle between monstrous creatures from the deep and massive robots, collected an unimpressive $3 million in its opening, rated as no surprise by one exhibitor given the avalanche of bad publicity in recent months.
The sci-fi fantasy/ adventure fetched a mediocre but not disastrous $US37.3 million in the US, beaten by Grown Ups 2’s $41.5 million. The sequel to the buddy comedy starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James and David Spade opens in Australia in September.
Word-of-mouth can’t be good for The Lone Ranger, which plunged by 44% to $2 million, earning $7.2 million so far; at that rate the Western starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp might just reach $10 million.
Glowing reviews for Much Ado About Nothing, director Joss Whedon’s modern retelling of Shakespeare’s comedy, didn’t pay big dividends as the film opened with $86,000 on 17 screens.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE July 11-14
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
The Heat |
1/336 |
$3,880,355 |
NA |
$4,082,151 |
|
2 |
Despicable Me 2 |
4/395 |
3,763,567 |
-20 |
29,739,610 |
|
3 |
Pacific Rim |
1/422 |
3,000,480 |
NA |
3,000,480 |
|
4 |
Monsters University |
4/340 |
2,764,660 |
-20 |
20,698,218 |
|
5 |
Man of Steel |
3/478 |
2,171,319 |
-48 |
20,980,661 |
|
6 |
The Lone Ranger |
2/353 |
2,004,997 |
-44 |
7,242,529 |
|
7 |
World War Z |
4/286 |
1,144,603 |
-43 |
16,876,935 |
|
8 |
Epic |
3/357 |
1,013,556 |
-5 |
6,935,958 |
|
9 |
The Great Gatsby |
7/164 |
490,109 |
-32 |
26,223,866 |
|
10 |
The Internship |
5/108 |
220,790 |
-60 |
7,587,268 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia