It took four weeks but The Avengers has finally been overthrown at the box office – defeated, somewhat fittingly, by The Dictator.
Unusually, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy opened in cinemas on Wednesday. During the next four days it took $5.1 million from 346 screens, giving it a very healthy screen average of $14,724. The Paramount Pictures film follows the story of Haffaz Alladeen (Cohen), the eccentric dictator of an oil-rich African nation who is summoned to the United Nations to address its concerns about his nuclear program.
Disney's The Avengers dropped to second on the charts, earning a further $3.5 million from 607 screens. Roadshow's Dark Shadows dropped 41 per cent ($2,189,935), while Universal's The Five-Year Engagement fell 45 per cent ($748,656).
The last entry in the top five, Roadshow's The Woman in Black, took $375,587 across 166 screens in its opening fpur-day weekend. The haunted house flick, which stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, had a screen average of $2,263.
Hoyts-distributed sci-fi comedy Iron Sky dropped 46 per cent following its disappointing opening. The space Nazi film took just $63,190 over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Hopscotch Films' Wish You Were Here crossed the $1 million mark in its fourth weekend of release. The psychological drama added another $124,438 to its gross, bringing its total box office takings to $1,055,796.
Australian films at the box office in 2012