Safe Haven takes $2m in opening weekend
Julianne Hough in Safe Haven
The new film from the director of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Chocolat opened at the top of the Australian box office over the weekend.
Safe Haven, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, made $1.954m in its first weekend, opening across 245 screens for a $7,977 screen average, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The Roadshow-distributed romantic drama stars Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough. The film made $US21.4m on its opening weekend in the US.
It pushes last week’s top film, Paramount’s Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, into second place on $1.746m taking the film’s total to $4.67m.
However, Roadshow’s Silver Linings Playbook, now in its third week stayed strong against Fox’s Lincoln in its second week, to stay in third place. Silver Linings Playbook made $1.4m taking its total to $7.59m while Lincoln made $1.157m over the weekend taking the film to $3.45m.
Meanwhile the adaptation of Russian play Anna Karenina by Joe Wright made $772,000 in its first weekend across 137 screens for a $5,633 screen average. However due to a big pre-release screening, the film stands at $1.078m. The film is distributed by Universal.
Also in its first weekend of release, British action film The Sweeney starring regular bad guy Ray Winston and Homeland’s Damian Lewis opened quietly for Hoyts/Studiocanal. The film made $147,000 across 114 screens for a poor $1,288 average.
Also entering the top 20 films this weekend was new release Love Story of Singh Vs Kaur, distributed by Indian distributor Indies. The film made $84,000 across 19 screens for a $4,443 average.
