The Green Hornet stung just enough to gain top spot in its opening weekend with just over $3 million — an acceptable but hardly exceptional result for the big-budgeted action-comedy. It was closely followed by Yogi Bear, which held strong in its second week to pull $2.5 million, and Darren Aronofsky’s psychological horror Black Swan, which averaged more per screen than any other top-ten film on debut (likely due to its considerable Oscar buzz). Another Oscar hopeful, David O. Russell’s boxing biopic The Fighter, fared reasonably well in sixth position with takings of almost $1.5 million. In only its second week, the Ron Howard comedy The Dilemma slipped to 8th place with a meagre taking of just $686,000 — a drop of over 50% from last week.
This Wednesday, the Australia Day public holiday should pave the way for a strong weekend at the box office for new releases such as James L. Brooks’ rom-com How Do You Know and the Coen brothers’ Western remake True Grit.
AUSTRALIAN WEEKEND BOX OFFICE RESULTS: 20-23 January 2011
Film Title, Distributor, Box Office ($)
1. THE GREEN HORNET, SONY PICTURES, 3,024,091
2. YOGI BEAR, WARNER BROS, 2,541,359
3. BLACK SWAN, FOX, 2,224,573
4. TANGLED, WALT DISNEY, 2,107,540
5. THE KING’S SPEECH, PARAMOUNT/TRANSMISSION, 1,827,978
6. THE FIGHTER, ROADSHOW, 1,491,238
7. BURLESQUE, SONY PICTURES, 1,213,603
8. THE DILEMMA, UNIVERSAL, 686,868
9. UNSTOPPABLE, FOX, 497,945
10. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, FOX, 488,859
Source: MPDAA
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