Australian Box Office Report (7th - 10th April 2005)

[FilmBuff84]

Here's the Top 20 films sitting at the Australian Box Office for the weekend Thursday the 7th to Sunday the 10th of April 2005.



Diesel wins brawn battle over McConaughey

(1) (4) THE PACIFIER
(2) (Debut) SAHARA
(3) (1) ROBOTS
(4) (Debut) GUESS WHO
(5) (2) MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS
(6) (3) THE RING TWO
(7) (5) HITCH
(8) (6) ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
(9) (7) LADIES IN LAVENDER
(10) (9) MILLION DOLLAR BABY
(11) (14) SON OF THE MASK
(12) (12) THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
(13) (11) HATING ALISON ASHLEY
(14) (13) BEING JULIA
(15) (8) BE COOL
(16) (10) ARE WE THERE YET?
(17) (18) MARIA FULL OF GRACE
(18) (16) BAD EDUCATION
(19) (New) FIVE CHILDREN AND IT
(20) (17) THE AVIATOR

In a surprising move, adventure destination SAHARA had to settle for second place this week as more people were preferred in travelling to Suburbia with Vin Diesel as THE PACIFIER continued its climb up the charts, this week to claim the #1 spot. The family comedy rose an additional 64% and collected $1,466,187, taking its 3 week total to $4,434,178 (US $50,984,834). Matthew McConaughey's entry at #2 managed $1,401,857 (US $16,118,759), making it the actors 10th Highest Grossing film in Australia, and the 28th Highest Grossing film this year. The Steve Zahn/Penelope Cruz accompanied adventure outing had, surprisingly, the lowest screen count in the Top 5 (194), but due to this pulled in the Highest Average per screen ($7,226). The victor for the past two weeks, ROBOTS only sloped 35% to manage a further $1,271,826, upping the animated comedy's total to $8,326,521 (US $95,739,570), marking it as the 4th Highest Grossing film of the year so far. The other major release for this week, GUESS WHO slipped into number 4 with $980,166 (US $11,270,093), continuing Ashton Kucher's decent cinematic run down under. Out of the 8 films he's passed by on our screens, ...WHO sits relatively in the middle as both the 5th Highest Grossing film for him, and the 5th Highest Opening Weekend gross. Wether the Bernie Mac co-starrer will manage to surpass his previous efforts such as The Butterfly Effect ($4.9m) or Just Married ($7.7m) remains to be seen, but looks unlikely. Sequel fare MISS CONGENIALITY 2 and THE RING TWO continue to stick close to each other, this week both dropping similar interest. Sandra Bullock's sophomore comedy was off 44% to a 3 week total of $6,247,745 (US $71,837,496), whilst Naomi Watts' second scares lost 48% to tally $4,604,935 (US $52,948,224). As school holidays still solider on, SON OF THE MASK somehow manages to keep up audience interest. As it continues to expand, and this week adds a further 57 screens to its count, the Jamie Kennedy sequel was up 31% to sit at #11 with $484,758 (US $5,573,819). BE COOL came to somewhat a crashing hault this week, as it dipped 70% and sits in the bottom half of the Top 20, looking like its 5th week in release will be close to its last. All up the John Travolta/Uma Thurman outing has accumulated $4,226,655 (US $48,598,704). On the Travolta spectrum, it's his 15th Highest Grossing film to date in Australia, falling far short of Get Shorty ($9.03m), whilst for Thurman it serves as her 6th Highest Grossing film, trailing a little behind 96's The Truth About Cats and Dogs ($5.2m) and totalling about half of each of her Kill Bill volumes ($8.2m/$8.4m). After debuting outside the Top 20 two weeks ago, FIVE CHILDREN AND IT managed to rise 22% and nab position #19 this week. The Freddy Highmore starrer has managed $202,733 (US $2,331,054). And baring all outside the charts on its 7 screens was Ewan McGregor in YOUNG ADAM which racked up $28,844 (US $331,652).

THIS WEEK (April 14th): Haunted house horror for Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George; Sean Penn wants the truth translated from Nicole Kidman; and Bruce Willis negotiates.

• The Amityville Horror
• The Interpreter
• Hostage

IN THE WEEKS TO COME:

• White Noise
• In Good Company
• Birth
• Crash
• XXX2: The Next Level
• Kingdom of Heaven
• Sin City

FLASHBACK: This time last year


Audiences team up with cop duo
(1) STARSKY & HUTCH
(2) 50 FIRST DATES
(3) SCOOBY DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED
(4) SECRET WINDOW
(5) THE CAT IN THE HAT

Highest Debut - STARSKY & HUTCH - $3,452,026
Highest Gross - LOTR: THE RETURN OF THE KING - $49,052,868