Australian Box Office Report: Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel take the lion’s share of this week’s box office earnings

Whether it’s from its recent positive publicity, school holidays drawing to a close or just the fact that it’s a brilliant film, Lion, starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, did extremely well in its opening weekend, earning $4.19m, where it now sits at the top of the box office ladder.  Opening on 254 screens nationally, it drew in a screen average of around $16.5k, which is the best screen average since August of 2016, when Suicide Squad made a screen average of about $27k.

Also doing well in its opening week is XXX: Return Of Xander Cage, which earned $2.96m and sits at no. 2 on the ladder.  The film opened on 331 screens nationally – more than any other film this weekend.  Like, Lion, this film also features Aussie talent.  Toni Collette and Ruby Rose both star alongside Vin Diesel.

Lion did so well this week that it knocked off former no. 1, Sing, which has dropped down the box office ladder to sit at no. 3.  It made a not-to-shabby $1.63m at the box office, and has currently been out in theatres for 4 weeks, so this is certainly not a bad run for the animated feature.

Both La La Land and Moana, which were in nos. 2 and 3 on the ladder respectively last week, have moved down the ladder this week.  La La Land now sits at no. 5, with a box office earnings this week of $1.31m, whilst Disney’s animated feature Moana beat it to 4th place and earned $1.52m.

The force is still strong though with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,  which is still in the top ten.  It sits at no. 6 and this week earned $1.03m at the box office.

Next week’s box office ladder should see the debut of indie flick Moonlight, which is gathering a lot of critical cudos, as well as tried and true franchise flick Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.  James McAvoy’s newest film, Split, also opens this week and got rave reviews from us.

All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo

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