Three major debuts could not unseat Jennifer Lawrence from her box office throne in Australia this week. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (which has a fair chance of cracking $1 billion worldwide) retained its top spot despite strong competition from animated sequel Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and new Vince Vaughn comedy Delivery Man. Hopeful franchise-starter Ender’s Game came in with a relatively disappointing #4 debut.
In the second half of the chart, Oscar hopefuls Captain Phillips and Gravity are sticking around, with Alfonso Cuaron’s space opus continuing to prove that it is a true cinematic event by remaining in the Top 10 for over two months.
1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Roadshow) $3,501,396
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Sony Pictures) $1,617,807
3. Delivery Man (Walt Disney / Dreamworks) $1,055,085
4. Ender’s Game (Icon) $850,514
5. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Paramount) $531,085
6. Thor: The Dark World (Walt Disney) $404,600
7. One Chance (Roadshow) $371,648
8. Carrie (Sony Pictures) $335,891
9. Captain Phillips (Sony Pictures) $174,298
10. Gravity (Warner Bros) $149,108
This week sees the release of American Hustle, David O. Russell’s follow up to his brilliant Silver Linings Playbook. With an amazingly strong cast including Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, this looks like a strong choice for the coming week, but is unlikely to take the #1 spot away from Catching Fire.
In the US over the past weekend, Disney’s Frozen (in its second week) overtook Catching Fire, with the films earning $31.6 million and $26.1 million respectively. Both films have some serious competition this weekend with the US release of Peter Jackson’s eagerly anticipated sequel The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Frozen and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug are both released in Australia on Boxing Day.
All results courtesy of the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo.
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