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Boy posts solid opening weekend

By Brendan Swift

New Zealand's Boy has posted a positive opening weekend at the Australian box office although local drama Matching Jack has continued to struggle to attract audiences.

The coming-of-age tale is already New Zealand's highest grossing local film in history and took $275,026 across 41 Australian screens over the weekend, for a healthy screen average of $6,708.

The film was an audience favourite at the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered earlier this year, and was written and directed by Taika Waititi.

Meanwhile, local drama Matching Jack took a further $189,543 – a 27 per cent drop in its second weekend. The film's distributor Fox maintained its screen count at 186 screens sending its screen average down to $1019.

Mao's Last Dancer has continued to perform well at the North American box office since opening on August 26, reaching $US1,193,813. The film was last year's biggest earner at the Australian box office.

Melbourne crime drama Animal Kingdom, which was released in the US on August 13, has now reached $US372,511 according to Box Office Mojo.

Australasian Films at the box office 2010

Film
 Budget
 Distributor
 Opening w/e
 Box Office
Bran Nue Dae
$6.5m
Roadshow
$1,612,102
$7,565,476
The Kings of Mykonos
$6m est.
Paramount/Transmission
$1,828,902
$4,896,679
Animal Kingdom
$5m est.
Madman
$604,139
$4,833,174
Beneath Hill 60
$9.5m
Paramount/Transmission
$548,694
$3,209,471
Daybreakers
$20m est.
Hoyts
$1,064,244
$2,448,050
I Love You Too
$6m
Roadshow
$113,483
$2,361,411
Bright Star
$16.7m est.
Roadshow/Hopscotch
$2,157,601
The Waiting City
$2m est.
Hopscotch
$136,892
$626,896
Matching Jack
$5m est.
Fox
$258,011
$615,230
South Solitary
$7m est
Icon
$132,240
$529,353
Boy
Paramount/Transmission
$275,026
$356,392
Accidents Happen
$6.5m est.
Hopscotch
$39,721
$157,131
Love, Lust & Lies
Beyond Entertainment
$20,674
$136,595
Second Hand Wedding
Potential/Arkles
$13,680
$72,650
Lou
Kojo Pictures
$27,371
$59,505
Girl Clock!
$1m
Self-distributed
$8,857
$43,434
Separation City
$4.8m
Hoyts
$15,278
$32,159
Triangle
$8m est.
Icon
$6,081
$11,282
Going Vertical
The Pack/Blue Sea Films
$3,879
$9,699
Savages Crossing
$3.5m
MediaKin/GAP
$4,432
$8,651
The Nothing Men
Anchor Bay Films
$4,518
$6,579
Playing For Charlie
$1.2m
The Pack
$2,665
$5,867
The Horseman
$500,000
Umbrella Entertainment
$2,270
$3,328

Source: MPDAA, INSIDEFILM. Separation City, Second Hand Wedding and Boy are NZ films. Bright Star released Dec 26, 2009; tally does not include 2009 box office.