Daisy Ridley and John Boyega in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens might have beaten Avatar for the all-time BO crown at the North American box office after only 20 days in release, but the J.J. Abrams-directed blockbuster still has a long way to go in Australia.
On 323 screens and in its fourth week of release, Star Wars is about to crack $80 million, with takings of $79,878,824 by the end of Sunday.
Avatar had taken $115,600,481 by the end of its 2009 run.
The return of Han and Leia outpaced Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant in its first week of release.
Starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hardy as fur trappers determined to do one another in, The Revenant opened on 216 screens with a cume of $4,012,578, less than Star Wars' weekend gross of $4,893,166, which was down 46 percent from last week.
Coming in third was the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy Sisters, which opened on 241 screens and took $3,271,444.
Next was Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg's Daddy's Home, which is about to crack $15 million after 3 weeks in release.
Meanwhile Disney/Pixar's The Good Dinosaur rang up $1,371,191 to bring its total to $10,543,359 on 310 screens.
Fox's animated releases were solid holdovers, with Alvin and the Chipmunks dropping 18 percent to hit $8,756,619 after 3 weeks and Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie totalling $4,415,779 after two weeks.
The dismally-reviewed Point Break has reached $4,306,336 after two weeks, while David O. Russell's Joy has tallied up $6,876,520 after three.
Transmission's Suffragette had a weekend gross of $432,641, down 37 percent, to bring its overall to $3,070,169, while Sam Mendes' Spectre rang up $279,026 for a cume after nine weeks of $35,245,268.
In its eleventh week, Jocelyn Moorhouse's The Dressmaker made $201,386 for an overall gross of $19,221,442 – 11th in all-time BO for local films at the Australian box office.