With school holidays ending and only a smattering of new releases in the market, the national box office plunged last weekend to the lowest point since mid-August 2020.
Amid very few new releases, school holidays are thankfully providing welcome foot traffic for exhibitors, with almost every title getting a boost at the box office last weekend.
It was déjà vu at the box office last weekend, with the same three titles leading receipts:
'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings', 'Free Guy' and 'Paw Patrol: The Movie'.
While family audiences finally have a little more variety at cinemas by way of 'Paw Patrol: The Movie' and 'Ainbo: Amazon Princess', neither new release were a match for 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' and 'Free Guy' at the box office last weekend.
With little by way of competition, Disney's 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' easily held the no. 1 position at the box office last weekend.
With audiences emerging from lockdown in South East Queensland, Cairns and regional Victoria, DC/Warner Bros.' 'The Suicide Squad' held no. 1 at the box office, narrowly defeating Disney's new sci-fi, 'Free Guy'.
With 16 million Australians in lockdown last weekend, the box office prospects for James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad' were fairly slim.
With Sydney's cinemas still shuttered, a snap lockdown in effect in South East Queensland, Victorian and South Australian theatres just reopening, and the Olympics competing for eyeballs, it wasn't going to be smooth sailing for Disney's 'Jungle Cruise'.