Australian Box Office Report (23rd - 26th September 2004)

[FilmBuff84]

Here's the top 20 films at the Australian Box Office for the weekend Thursday the 23rd to Sunday the 26th of September 2004.



Shark's tale drowns the competition

(1) (Debut) SHARK TALE
(2) (1) GARFIELD: THE MOVIE
(3) (2) DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY
(4) (8) THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
(5) (Debut) A CINDERELLA STORY
(6) (4) THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
(7) (5) THE TERMINAL
(8) (3) CATWOMAN
(9) (Debut) HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE
(10) (6) SUDDENLY 30
(11) (7) THE VILLAGE
(12) (13) YU-GI-OH!
(13) (9) THUNDERBIRDS
(14) (11) HOME ON THE RANGE
(15) (10) SOMERSAULT
(16) (12) THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS
(17) (14) METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER
(18) (Preview Screenings) A TOUCH OF SPICE
(19) (Debut) SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER
(20) (16) FAHRENHEIT 9/11

The Dreamworks animated comedy SHARK TALE took a nice bite out of the charts this week, $2,541,304 to be exact. The Will Smith voiced family flick was strangely released a sizeable 11 days before its US run, and all up it has collected $3,311,233 (US $34,016,962) as it had an extra 3 days of release on its hands. The weekend launch is the 19th Highest opening of the year, but given the school holiday period and it being the only big release, it is a bit disappointing. Not disappointing many, except maybe loyal fans, GARFIELD: THE MOVIE managed a good hold in its second week. The family comedy only dipped 19% and collected a further $1,626,529, taking the films two week total to a very nice $5,054,094 (US $51,921,723). After a slow start last week, THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT picked up and rose 94% to manage $1,108,771, taking the Anne Hathaway starrer to $2,332,452 (US $23,961,748). Hathaway may have gotten a good audience, but Hilary Duff managed to pick up some of her leftovers with A CINDERELLA STORY. The tween comedy co-starring Jennifer Coolidge and Chad Michael Murray had a brief Advance Screening run two weeks ago, and thanks to that it has crossed the Million Dollar mark, settling with $1,126,728 (US $11,575,103). Matt Damon can now firmly plant himself in the Top 10 of the Highest Grossing films of 2004, with THE BOURNE SUPREMACY creeping up 3 spots to #9 on the list, thanks to its hefty $13,818,769 (US $141,962,990) intake. The action sequel has now over-grossed the original by almost a Million dollars. Unsurprisingly CATWOMAN slipped rather drastically over the weekend. Though it fell 48%, not as big a drop as it could've been, it was off fro #3 to #8 and will no doubt be out of the 20 in a matter of short time. The Halle Berry vehicle has a poor $1,956,323 (US $20,097,699) to its name after 2 weeks. The stoner comedy of John Cho and Kal Penn rallied up ]$510,090 (US $5,240,257) over the weekend for HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE. The opening managed to improve over the similarly targeted The Girl Next Door and Eurotrip, but like those films, I don't see a long cinema run for these two. Perhaps the DVD shelves will serve these films better. Two of the major animated outings for the holiday period opened to poor numbers last week, and though they are still far from great, the second week of holidays pushed them up a great deal. YU-GI-OH! rose a whopping 150% to a total so far of $567,818 (US $5,833,308), whilst HOME ON THE RANGE was up 40% with $603,262 (US $6,197,431).

THIS WEEK (September 30th): Kirsten Dunst serves up love on centre court; Reese Witherspoon goes period piece; The ultimate sci-fi villans face/off; and B2K deliver us some hip-hop.

• WIMBLEDON
• VANITY fAIR
• ALIEN VS. PREDATOR
• You Got Served

IN THE WEEKS TO COME: Anacondas, Shaun of the Dead, Collateral, The Notebook, Shall We Dance?

FLASHBACK: This time last year


Tales of the sea the top draw
(1) PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
(2) FINDING NEMO
(3) LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER - THE CRADLE OF LIFE
(4) BAD BOYS II
(5) FREAKY FRIDAY

Highest debut - LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER - THE CRADLE OF LIFE - $2,004,982
Highest gross - FINDING NEMO - $28,663,524