The Turning takes just $215,000 in opening weekend
Ambitious Australian film Tim Winton’s The Turning took a relatively disappointing $215,552 at the box office over the weekend, making it 12th in terms of takings.
However given that the film – featuring a series of linked short stories each from a different director – was only released on 16 screens, it took a respectable $13,472 per screen.
The Turning was one of four Australian films to win a total of $5m Screen Australia funding when it was announced last year.
The top film of the weekend was the opening of Adam Sandler ensemble movie Grown Ups 2, which took just over $3m.
Next came Turbo which took $2.2m followed by Smurfs 2 on $1.9m.
In a box office dominated by family films timed for the school holidays, Disney’s Planes was next with $1.4m.
Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters was fifth with $1.3m.
THE BOX OFFICE TOP 20
| Title (Distributor) | Weekend B/O | Screens | Total B/O |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grown Ups 2 (Sony) | $3,030,194 | 281 | $3,030,194 |
| Turbo (Fox) | $2,224,609 | 327 | $5,747,166 |
| The Smurfs 2 (Sony) | $1,885,161 | 369 | $7,531,373 |
| Planes (Disney) | $1,382,559 | 432 | $2,999,392 |
| Percy Jackson: The Sea Of Monsters (Fox) | $1,280,193 | 350 | $3,786,573 |
| Runner Runner (Fox) | $1,264,778 | 235 | $1,264,778 |
| Blue Jasmine (Eone /hopscotch) | $708,560 | 128 | $3,688,953 |
| White House Down (Sony) | $587,098 | 227 | $6,243,587 |
| One Direction: This Is Us (Sony) | $425,264 | 295 | $1,911,781 |
| Now You See Me (Eone /hopscotch) | $363,723 | 110 | $16,479,878 |
| Riddick (Roadshow) | $346,392 | 183 | $3,058,021 |
| Tim Winton (Madman) | $215,552 | 16 | $345,383 |
| Elysium (Sony) | $174,516 | 76 | $11,720,573 |
| We're The Millers (Wb) | $171,725 | 103 | $9,481,860 |
| The Best Offer (Paramount) | $107,431 | 64 | $1,619,213 |
| Stories We Tell (Palace) | $98,200 | 16 | $194,774 |
| R.i.p.d. (Universal) | $75,466 | 65 | $1,166,003 |
| Red 2 (Eone /hopscotch) | $65,012 | 45 | $4,280,612 |
| Lovelace (Roadshow) | $39,444 | 19 | $62,021 |
| Hidden Universe 3d (Imax) | $34,957 | 2 | $146,276 |
It’s had zero promotion and is in limited cinemas…what do they expect??
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Never heard of The Turning – didn’t know it existed
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The idea that you could get a bunch of filmmakers to turn a bunch of short stories into separate films which run for 3 hours and charge $25/ticket is a commercially inept decision. Screen Australia evaluated this film and invested money in it and it picked up a 40% of budget tax rebate under the Producer Offset. What was the criteria for the investment because it surely wasn’t based on any reasonable commercial criteria. It is really pretentious basked weaving stuff.
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Big market for a three hour arthouse short film anthology…
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Pity.
I’m no fan of the way Australian movies get made – http://www.thepunch.com.au/art.....ilm-flops/ – but I’m a massive fan of that book.
My fave bit of Aussie fiction in years…
But you could have predicted this outcome.
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You could, of course, change the way that you have told this story and headlined it “The Turning has highest box office average”. Bigger than Grown Ups, Turbo and Smurfs.
Disney’s Planes – the big launch during the holidays – took $3,200 box office average ( against The Turning’s $13,472) and spent infinitely more on its P&A.
Who does it help to talk down the film industry?
Who is encouraged to see this film if you pronounce it a failure?
And no one here has seen it.
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Well i saw it, I paid the premium price, I appreciated being given the 40pp programme, I enjoyed hearing Connolly, Simon Stone and Suzie Porter talk eloquently afterwards. The 3 hours went pretty quickly, some of the 17shorts were very good, most were good, and one or two i didn’t like. but every one was filmed and produced magnificently and is a wonderful showreel for australian talent. Go see, and back the industry, rather than Fast and the f@$kin Furious 46 or whatever we’re up to now
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@michael: Bloody, bloody good point.
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