The Dictator topples The Avengers at the box office
After three weeks at the top, The Avengers has been knocked off the Box Office throne courtesy of a coup by Sasha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator.
In its first week, the comedy about a North African dictator in America took $5m at the weekend box office, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
Across 346 screens, for a $14,724 average per screen, The Dictator took $5.094m. The film beat The Avengers’ $3.513m weekend earnings across 607 screens for a $5,788 screen average. The comic book heroes now sit at $43.921m, making the film the 10th highest grossing picture of all time at the Australian box office.
The Tim Burton film Dark Shadows in its second week rounded out the top three films. It took $2.189m across 369 screens for an average of $5,935 per screen.
New at the box office this week, The Woman in Black, directed by James Watkins and starring Daniel Radcliffe placed fifth on the table with $0.375m across 166 screens for a $2,263 average.
In limited release, Australian film Wish You Were Here by Kieran Darcy-Smith, now in its fourth week, has passed the $1m mark to stay consistently in the top ten. The past weekend saw the film take $0.124m across 45 screens for a $2,763 screen average.
In its second week, the Australia/Finnish/German sci-fi co-production Iron Sky di $63,190 across 45 screens for a $1,404 average taking the film to $226,000.
There was only one new limited release film this week, Department which took $17,690 across 14 screens for a $1,264 average.
