Australia mirrored the North American box-office for the second successive weekend as romantic drama The Vow topped the charts.
It may not have been quite as spectacular as the US (which opened with $41.7 million, the sixth highest opening in history for a film released in February), but, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, the $A2.8 million was enough to place it at the top of the charts just ahead of Safe House.
Top five films
Denzel Washington continues to be one of the most consistent Hollywood stars at the Australian box-office with past successes including American Gangster, Training Day and Unstoppable. Safe House, with co-star Ryan Reynolds, looks to follow in their footsteps and drew $A2.7 million and less than $A100,000 behind the number one film.
The number three film made it a trifecta of new releases at the top – the 3D version of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace attracting a further $A1.6 million, only tens of thousands ahead of last week’s number one film. Chronicle tumbled 49% to $A1.5 million and a more than respectable $A5.2 million total after just two weeks.
Rounding out the top five and descending from last week’s number two position was The Descendants with $A0.8 million and a $A13 million total.
New releases, holdovers and foreign language films
The second Australian feature of the year, Any Questions for Ben?, opened modestly in sixth place with $A0.6 million in spite of encouraging reviews. One place below was the other locally produced film, A Few Best Men, with $A0.5 million and a $A4.7 million total.
Questions will be more likely asked of the producers of the Rob Sitch-helmed feature as to why the film was released so close to a similar Australian comedy.
The top three films also held the best screen averages, with The Artist showing an $A8,200 screen average in eleventh spot. The Oscar frontrunner surprisingly dropped 14% to $A320,000 and a whisper short of one million dollars in total.
With its R18+ rating, Steve McQueen’s Shame and featuring a great deal of Michael Fassbender collected $A170,000 on 29 screens whilst Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and the latest Hindu film posted one of the lowest averages of the genre for some time - just $A7,000.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows still reigns supreme as box-office champ with $19.7 million – the only other film with earnings north of $A10 million in the weekend’s top twenty is The Descendents.
Top five films at the Australian box-office, weekend 2-5 February
- The Vow (Sony), $A2.8 million ($A3 million)
- Safe House (Universal), $A2.7 million ($A2.7 million)
- Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (Fox), $A1.6 million ($A1.6 million)
- Chronicle (Fox), $A1.5 million ($A5.2 million)
- The Descendants (Fox), $A0.8 million ($A13 million)
Keith Lawrence - Published writer of articles in magazines, newspapers and websites, predominantly on culture, alongside ghostwriter/editor/copywriter.
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