This Week in Australian Cinemas

This week is very unexciting, which is why it will be brief.


The Lake House, 2006, dir. Agresti
I admit to being interested in this movie. Mainly because they use Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" in the trailer, and I heart that song. But also because it appears to make absolutely no sense. Even less sense than something by David Lynch. I love Sandy though, so I'll probably end up seeing this on Cheap Tuesday.

You, Me and Dupree, 2006, dir. Russo & Russo
Wow, I didn't realise America had changed their grammar laws to know including commas before the and when you're making a list. We've discussed in class before that putting that comma before the and is American grammar, whereas here we don't do it. See! But now you guys have (rightfully) stopped doing so?

Can you tell I have no interest in this movie whatsoever. Cause I don't.

The Libertine, 2005, dir. Dunmore
Shock! This movie hasn't been receiving death notices upon it's Australian release. In fact, some of it's reviews are down right glowing. I still won't see it until at least DVD, but ya know... I assumed everybody hated it.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, 2005, dir. Rothmund
I'm sorry, but YAWN. I am not in the mood for another WWII movie. This one was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars, but saying that is pretty meaningless considering they nominated anything with "World War Two" said in it, essentially.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston, 2005, dir. Feuerzeig
Apparently this guy is some sort of legend in underground circles, but guess what - I don't care. The clips I've seen don't exactly make me wanna see this movie (awful singing mainly). Whatever. I have no interest in this at all.

BOX-OFFICE
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (3)
2. My Super Ex-Girlfriend (1)
3. Jindabyne (1)
4. Superman Returns (4)
5. Little Man (2)
6. Over the Hedge (5)
7. Click (5)
8. 16 Blocks (1)
9. Cars (7)
10. Ten Canoes (4)

Pirates duplicates it's US success of three weeks on top, which isn't saying much considering it made $3.6mil compared to the number 2 place getter My Super Ex-Girlfriend debuted with $1.2mil. Well done though got Ex-Girlfriend getting that much, considerably better here than in America where it debuted at something like #7 with $8mil. Ouch.

I've loving that Australian audiences are finally clicking into some great product. I speak of Ray Lawrence's Jindabyne, debuting at #3 with takings of just under $900,000. May not sound like much, but it's average was $13,436 from 65 screens (Pirates is on 480, Ex-Girlfriend is on 214, Superman is still on 311). This debut was better than Lawrence's 2001 box-office sensation Lantana. That film debuted in October 2001 with $600,000 but went on to gross over $12mil. Jindabyne is the largest opening this year for an Australian film and should easily outgross the highest grossing 2006 Aussie title so far Kokoda.

Positions 4-7 are boring and I won't discuss them. Bruce Willis' 16 Blocks debuts at #8 after getting barely any advertising. Whatever. At #10 though is the wonder that is Ten Canoes, down a scant 16% in it's fourth week of release, still on only 42 screens. They really need to start getting this title out to more cinemas. It's not at either of my city's cinemas and they usually get the big arthouse titles, and this one definitely qualified. Canoes had a fourth week average of $6,090, still the third best in the Top 10 (after Jindabyne and Pirates.

Debuting at #15 was The White Masai with a decent average of $4,884. Decent because it had no international buzz at all. Debuting unranked was the Demi Moore schlockfest that was Half Light with an embarassing $29,463 on 29 screens. That's an average of $1,016 folks in it's opening week.

Other things of note: Wah-Wah, sitting at #11 nears $2mil, a stunning figure considering it essentially vanished in the US. Kevin Spacey's vanity project Beyond the Sea continues to do bizarrely well, considering it was out in the US 2 years ago. It fell 27% but rose 2 spots to be at #12 this week and is still averaging $7,447 a cinema - nice work. And lastly, Hard Candy continues to do well, despite it's R18+ rating.