The Sapphires claims biggest box office opening weekend of the year for an Aussie film
New Australian film The Sapphires has had a strong debut at the box office, taking the highest opening weekend by an Australian film this year.
The film, distributed by Hopscotch/eOne has grossed $2.34m at the most recent count, with figures being finalised, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The Sapphires took a respectable screen average of $8387 across 279 screens.
The film’s cumulative total, including sneak previews bumps the film up to $2.59m.
Directed by Wayne Blair and produced by Rosemary Blight and Kylie Du Fresne, and written by Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson the film is about an all-girl Indigenous soul group going to Vietnam to entertain the troops.
It beat out previous 2012 Australian top film A Few Best Men which opened in January with $1.8m.
The Sapphires beat the Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis film The Campaign, distributed by Warner Bros, also in its opening weekend. The film took $2.038m across 229 screens for a $8,903 screen average.
Despite the Australian film’s strong showing, The Dark Knight Rises, distributed by Warner Bros, remained on top of the box office this weekend, taking another $2.742m. Still open across 501 screens, the film had a $5,473 screen average.
Australian documentary I Am Eleven, distributed by Proud Mother Pictures took another $15,248 across nine screens taking the film, by Genevieve Bailey up to $193,101 total.
Not Suitable For Children, directed by Peter Templeman and distributed by Icon, took another $9,232 across 11 screens bumping its gross to $487,00.
Rolf De Heer’s The King Is Dead, distributed by Pinnacle Films, took $3,320 across three screens building its total box office to $64,000.
Craig Lahiff’s Swerve, distributed by Jump Street re-entered the limited release report on one screen to take $2,211. The film has taken $70,700 to date.
Elsewhere in limited release, Sirphrie, distributed by Indies, took $23,197 across nine screens for a $2,577 screen average.
topics
A Few Best Men
Hopscotch
Keith Thompson
Kylie Du Fresne
Not Suitable For Children
Rosemary Blight
Swerve
The King Is Dead
The Sapphires
Tony Briggs
Wayne Blair
Go see it – you will love it.
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Great news. Will see the film next weekend and then bring on Kath and Kim! lol
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Hasn’t this been done a thousand times before by the Yanks, the British etc
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Well done!
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This is fantastic news!!! I saw this film yesterday. Sprint to the cinema it will make you laugh and cry in equal measures and proud to be an Australian filmmaker.
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Good on them! The buzz is overwhelmingly great and the media coverage has been frequent, visible and obviously effective on a range of platforms. I’m very pleased to see a marketing and PR push perform this well. Can’t wait to see it myself.
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Unfortunately the reviews haven’t been very good, but audiences don’t seem to care.
Will be interesting to see what gross this film can achieve…maybe $10mil…
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You’ve nailed it Dave.
I can think of thousands or movies about Yorta Yorta women who form a quartet and sing for the troops during the Vietnam War.
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Anyone knows the film’s budget?
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It’s great that a local film can be so successful but this is not a film I would want to see in a cinema. It seems to be a regurgitation of The Commitments which I loathed.
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With all respect Daniel, you might just be wrong there ? I don’t recall 4 indigenous women going to a war zone in the face of racism and sexism in The Commitments ….. but there was soul music, yes.
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Will I be stoned if I confess that I was underwhelmed?
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Stone Punter – why should you be this has been done a million times. Seriously. But still good to see the Tax payers money is being better spent than all the other crap Screen Australia make but still I’m thrilled for the Cast & Crew it’s a great achievement to be able to make any movie that gets a box office result like this. But God the movies are crap here.
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Ugh don’t be ridiculous John Grono. Clearly the OP was talking about movies about bands, and specifically girl groups. Like it or not people are going to compare this to Dream Girls, no matter how different the actual stories.
I would have to say the trailer with putting the signs on the girls is a little lame, but Deborah Mailman is so great.
Do opening weekend figures get adjusted given ticket prices are more expensive now?
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