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Aussie shark film Bait struggles in opening box office weekend

Australian sharksploitation film Bait has struggled to find an audience at local cinemas in its opening weekend at the box office.

Directed by Kimble Rendall and distributed by Paramount, the 3D film about a group of customers stranded in a shopping mall after a tsunami strikes, only to be harassed by a great white shark, was filmed in the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.

The film took $365,000 according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.


Made for an estimated $20m, the film opened across 283 screens for a $1,290 screen average in tenth spot in the top 20 films this week.

However, reviews for the film have been positive and the film opens after screening in official selection at the 69th Venice International Film Festival earlier this month.

It stars A Few Best Men’s Xavier Samuel, Nip Tuck’s Julian McMahon, Home and Away’s Sharni Vinson, Puberty Blues’ Dan Wylie and Tomorrow, When the War Began’s Phoebe Tonkin.

Cate Shortland’s Lore opened in limited release by distributor Paramount/Transmission. The  film opened across just 11 screens to take $5,866 screen average for a total of $64,558. The film recently screened at Toronto International Film Festival.

In its third week, Kath & Kimderella added another $558,000 to take it to $4.819m while The Sapphires added $441,000 taking its total to $12.73m. Storm Surfers 3D took $64,558 taking the film to $607,000 and I Am Eleven made another $2075 on just five screens taking the film to $282,000.

In the battle for the school holiday audience new animated feature film Hotel Transylvania was unable to tackle the latest in the Madagascar franchise.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, distributed by Paramount topped the box office this weekend taking $2.597m across 532 screens for a $4,882 screen average.

Sony’s Hotel Transylvania took $1.311m across 454 screens for a screen average of $2,889.

Also in time for school holidays, Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Dog Days opened on $975,000 across 236 screens for a $4,132 screen average while Ruby Sparks, also distributed by Fox, took $549,000 across 209 screens for a $2,626 screen average.

Also screening in its first weekend is Indian film Heroine, distributed by Mindblowing Films. The film took $77,000 across just 14 screens for a $5,501 screen average.

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