Ben Lewin’s sex surrogate film The Sessions opens with $267,000 at box office as Housos breaks through $1m
William H Macy and John Hawkes in The Sessions
The Sessions, a film by an Australian film-maker husband and wife duo, has taken $267,000 at the box office in its opening weekend.
Written and directed by Ben Lewin and produced by his wife Judi Levine, The Sessions is inspired by a true story and and follows man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity to a professional sex surrogate.
The Fox-distributed film was awarded winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
Starring John Hawkes, William H Macy and Helen Hunt, the film opened on 57 screens for a $4,680 screen average, taking the film’s total Australian box office to $278,000, following a screening at Melbourne International Film Festival.
Elsewhere, action-comedy Seven Psychopaths opened with $671,000 across 186 screens for an average of $3,608. The film which is distributed by Hopscotch was second on the box office chart, but along way behind Argo, directed and starring Ben Affleck, now in its third weekend and taking $1.49m across 354 screens for an average $4,210.
In its second week, Housos Vs Authority, distributed by Transmission and directed by Paul Fenech, took another $302,800 across 152 screens for a relatively low screen average of $1,992. The film now stands at $1.028m.
Madman’s Australian documentary Paul Kelly: Stories of Me took another $14,743 across nine screens, with the film standing at $384,733.
Australian film Last Dance, directed by David Pulbrook, also in its second week made just $2,892 for distributor Becker across four screens, while Amiel Courtin Wilson’s Hail made $1,677 on just one screen.
Last Dance’s total box office stands at $14,210 while Hail has taken $38,556.
Cate Shortland’s Lore made another $1400. The film now stands at $295,000.
