Queer Christmas rom-com 'Happiest Season' helped to breathe some needed new life into the Aussie box office over the weekend, though most exhibitors continue to eagerly hang out for end-of-year releases 'Wonder Woman 1984' and 'The Dry'.
'Space Jam: A New Legacy' did bumper business during school holiday advance screenings, but its official opening weekend was hampered by cinema closures in the country's two largest markets.
While the weekend was all about the launch 'Mission: Impossible -Dead Reckoning Part One' for most cinemas, Paramount is not publicly releasing figures for the film until after its "official" premiere date on Thursday. Yet most exhibitors report a strong response.
With the Sydney market emerging from lockdown, the national box office got a 72 per cent boost last weekend, despite the absence of major new releases.
Australian cinema made a welcome return to box office top three on the weekend as Madman's Fremantle-shot 'How To Please a Woman' came in behind Marvel juggernaut 'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' and 'Downton Abbey: A New Era'.
Unjoo Moon's 'I Am Woman' will premiere on Stan as a Stan Orginal on August 28 - the latest in a growing list of Australian films to bypass cinemas as the pandemic continues to depress the theatrical market.
David Simpson is departing Roadshow Films to join South Australian-based Wallis Cinemas as programming manager
South Australia's Wallis Cinemas has launched a distribution arm, with its first acquisition Marion Pilowsky's documentary 'Isla's Way'.