By Simon de Bruyn
The acclaimed feature debut of Warwick Thornton is off to a strong start, taking $199,000 over just 12 screens in major cities over the weekend, according to Nielsen EDI figures.
The filmmakers said Samson and Delilah took the highest screen average for any Australian film since Lantana in 2001.
The film took a massive $17,000 per screen, and didn’t seem to be hurt by Mothers Day on Sunday or the fact that its four NSW locations couldn’t open the film until Friday due to the Message Sticks premiere in Sydney on Thursday evening.
The strongest location was the Cinema Nova 8 in Melbourne ($35,678) and the Luna Leederville Twin in Perth ($25,926). The film’s total now stands at $220,000, after previews last weekend.
Meanwhile the $4 million film Prey, the Natalie Bassingthwaighte film direct-marketed to teens in a nifty viral campaign, took a weak $1089 on four screens over the Thursday to Sunday weekend period. The Nielsen EDI reported figure of $342 was corrected by the film’s producer Bobby Galinsky in an email to INSIDEFILM.
Mary and Max continued to hold its position in the top 15, taking a further $76,724 for a new total of $1.12 million, while Closed for Winter took an extra $1,485 for a total of $42,884.
Samson and Delilah will add more screens in coming weeks, with the film’s distributors currently inundated with calls from exhibitors keen to show the film.