Final Twilight film takes massive $12.5m on opening weekend
The final instalment of the The Twilight Saga has had a massive opening weekend at the box office.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, distributed by Hoyts/StudioCanal, took $12.49m, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
Across a huge 655 screens, the film had a $19,070 screen average.
The film wasn’t a series’ best, however. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the second film in the series, released three years ago, made $16.109m on its opening weekend to be the second-highest grossing opening film in Australian box office history, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which made $18.364m in its first weekend.
However, Breaking Dawn is the third-highest opening weekend film in Australia for 2012. Batman film The Dark Knight remains the top opening weekend film for 2012, taking $15m. The Avengers took $13m.
Elsewhere, two Australian films and one New Zealand film have opened in limited release this week.
Dead Europe, directed by Tony Krawitz and produced by Liz Watts, distributed by Paramount/Transmission, has taken $17,430 at the box office across 12 screens for a low $1,453 average. Due to previous festival screenings however, the film’s total stands at $62,973.
The First Fagin, directed by Helen Gaynor and Alan Rosenthal about British criminal Ikey Solomon, has opened wider, across 22 screens for distributor Ronin, but taken the very low $8,416 for a screen average of just $383.
Two Little Boys, the New Zealand film starring Hamish Blake of comedy duo Hamish and Andy and Brett McKenzie of Kiwi comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, did a bit better. The film opened on 23 screens for Hopscotch and made $40,744, for a screen average of $1.771.
Housos Vs Authority, now in its third week of release made $128,602 across 106 screens taking the film to $1.249m.
Musical documentary Paul Kelly: Stories of Me, directed by Ian Darling, distributed by Madman made another $13,374 in its fifth week, taking the film to $406,700.
And Last Dance, directed by David Pulbrook, distributed for Becker made another $1.461, taking the film to $17,400.