George Miller’s fourth instalment of the Mad Max franchise has thundered into Australian cinemas over the weekend, taking $6,181,383 over 271 screens.
Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and Hugh Keays-Byrne as well as a host of Australian supporting talent such as Abbey Lee, Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Zoe Kravitz and Megan Gale.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Fury Road sees loner Max (Hardy, taking over from Mel Gibson), cross paths with Imperator Furiosa (Theron) who is fleeing Immortan Joe, ruler of The Citadel (Keays-Byrne). She has rescued his wives (Lee, Kravitz and Huntington-Whitely) from their imprisonment but Joe and his army of War Boys are in hot pursuit to reclaim what he views as his property.
The film is being distributed in Australia by Roadshow.
The success of Mad Max knocked Universal’s Pitch Perfect 2 off the number one spot, though the musical still hit the right note in its second week, raking in $5,793,482 across 262 locations. The film has amassed $18,011,402 at the Aus box office so far.
Superheros continued to prove popular, with Disney’s Avengers: Age of Ultron scooping $2,005,703 in week four. That takes its Australian box office total to a whopping $36,852,825, according to a report released by Rentrak.
Paramount’s A Royal Night Out took a respectable $656,318 in its opening weekend, especially considering the films it was up against.
The British comedy-drama stars Sarah Gadon as the young Princess Elizabeth, who with Princess Margaret (Bel Powley) ventures out of Buckingham Palace to enjoy the VE Day celebrations. It was shown across 261 screens and, including previews and special screenings, has taken $706,095 at the Aus box office so far.
Teen horror Unfriended continued to scare in its third week, yielding $367,884 across 187 locations. The social media cautionary tale, distributed by Universal, has so far grossed $2,719,256 in Australia.
Also from Universal is Fast and Furious 7, which keeps on revving audience engines in its seventh week of release. Having so far amassed a whopping $43,055,656 at the Aus box office, this last weekend saw the latest franchise instalment take $280,846 over 194 screens.
The magic of Disney’s Cinderella still hasn’t quite rubbed off, with the tale as old as time conjuring up $132,220 over 169 locations. The film, now in its eighth week, has amassed a total of $21,912,970 in Australia.
The Age of Adaline grossed $110,236 over 145 screens, contributing to a total of $2,644,896. The film, distributed by eOne, is in its fifth week of release.
Fox’s Home came in at ninth place with $99,500 over 139 screens, making an Australian box office total of $18,658,464; while Roadshow’s While We’re Young rounded out the top ten with takings of $96,516 over 65 screens. The indie film has been running for five weeks and has so far grossed a total of $1,386,395.