Local psychological horror Snowtown has posted a strong opening weekend at the box office after grossing $169,072 across 16 screens.
The limited release strategy resulted in an impressive screen average of $10,567 with South Australia’s Reading Elizabeth – located near where the serial murders depicted in the film took place – posting the second highest figure nationally ($18,431). Snowtown has now grossed $181,316 in total, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The film, which was awarded the President of the Jury Special Award Grand Prix at the Cannes International Film Festival, tells the story of Australia’s worst serial killer, John Bunting, and his relationship with 16-year-old Jamie Vlassakis.
Revolver Entertainment recently acquired UK distribution rights while IFC Films acquired North American rights at Cannes. Madman Entertainment is distributing the film in Australia.
Among other Australian releases, feel-good documentary Mrs Carey's Concert continued to perform well. Its weekend box office increased 1 per cent to $78,588 after four weeks. Its screen average was $4136 across 19 screens.
Indigenous drama Mad Bastards posted a 24 per cent drop to $43,215 in its third weekend at cinemas. The film was shown across 25 screens for a screen average of $1729.
Among wide releases, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides took the number one slot after grossing an impressive $9.9 million across 620 screens. Its screen average was $15,973 in its opening weekend.
Fox's romance Water for Elephants posted a 30 per cent fall in its second weekend, grossing just under $1.83 million across 392 screens.
Rounding out the top five were Source Code ($697,027), Fast and Furious 5 ($632,832) and Thor ($612,054).
Australian films at the box office 2011
Source: IF magazine, MPDAA