American Pie: Reunion takes the cake at the Easter box office

The return of Stifler, Jim, Finch and Oz in American Pie: Reunion was enough to bump The Hunger Games off top spot in the Easter Weekend’s box office.

The not-so-teen comedy took $4.8m across 330 screens for a respectable $14,551 per screen.

The Hunger Games continued with strong results however, taking second place with $3.2m in its third week across 467 screens for an average of $6,871 per screen. The film has now taken $21.3m in its three weeks at the Australian box office.

Easter is always a big weekend for the box office. This year saw eight films open.

Titanic 3D opened in 5th place taking $1.7m across 169 screens for a screen average of $10,225.

The animation Pirates! Band of Misfits by Aardman Animation, the studio behind Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, opened widely with 425 screens, but only managed a screen average of $2,033 to take $864,000 in ninth spot.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt and directed by Lasse Hallstrom opened its official release in 10th spot with 567,000 across 95 screens for an average of $5,975. It took  $109,000 in pre-release last week.

In limited release, Indian action comedy Housefull 2 opened in limited release across 17 screens taking $14,077 per screen for a total of $239,000 for distribution company Eros Australia. It was a good week for Eros, who also opened Mirza: The Untold Story, a Punjabi action romance which took $143,000 across 14 screens for an average of $10,197.

Sean Penn film This Must Be the Place, directed by Paolo Sorrentino opened across 16 screens taking $72,331 for a screen average of $4,521.

Hong Kong film Love in the Buff, directed by Ho-Cheung Pang opened across six screens to take $59,000 for a screen average of $9,914.

Goodbye First Love, a French film by Mia Hansen-Love opened across 11 screens taking $18,662 for an average of $1,697.

Fellow French film The Well Digger’s Daughter, directed by Daniel Auteuil, opened across five screens for just $9787, and a screen average of $1,957.