Smashing into the Kiwi box office as part of the fifth biggest worldwide opening of all time, 2012 completely demolished every other title to more than double its nearest competitor at number one.
Collecting almost $900,000 the John Cusack led disaster flick averaged a scorching $11,000 per screen and underlined the audience hunger for event films, no matter the time of year. Despite facing stiff competition from the All Whites headline-hogging victory on Saturday night, 2012 played to a number of sell-outs across the country and reinforced director Roland Emmerich as the modern master of disaster.
Slipping out of the top spot for the first time since its debut, Michael Jackson’s This Is It added another $400,000 to move further up the yearly charts. With over $3 Million in the bank so far the Sony release is already one of the top ten films of the year and looks to crack the $4 Million mark in the next couple of weeks.
My Sister’s Keeper held up remarkably well in its second week as it dropped from second to third but shed only 20% of its audience. Effective counter-programming against the blockbuster behemoth of 2012, Keeper was once again the number one choice for the fairer gender and continues to perform above expectations.
In fourth place, A Christmas Carol actually grew from last week’s disappointing debut and managed to add another $150,000 to its moderate coffers. It is very rare for a mainstream Hollywood title to actually increase in its second week and could point towards positive word of mouth being generated around the Jim Carrey vehicle. Julie and Julia held up well again and pushed closer to the $1.5 Million mark which would be seen as a very successful return for the moderately budgeted title.
Despite arriving on a wave of publicity and hype, Niki Caro’s The Vintner’s Luck could only manage a sixth place debut. Reteaming Caro with her Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes seemed like a can’t miss combination in their native New Zealand but middling reviews and a uncertain audience meant the film opened to lower end of expectations with $65,000.
Sliding down into seventh spot was the final Heath Ledger flick The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus as it also collected another $65,000. Bruce Willis and his Surrogates landed in eighth spot, taking a massive tumble with the arrival of 2012 gobbling up audience and theatres from the action film. An Education had no such problems in ninth spot as it squeaked down a mere 3% to take its overall tally to a smidge under $700,000.
Rounding out the top ten was the new Sam Mendes (American Beauty) comedy Away We Go which cracked the top ten despite only playing on nine screens, reaffirming the Kiwi love for independent cinema. Outside the top ten the most noticeable new release was the stunning [REC] 2 which just squeezed into the top twenty despite playing on only three screens nationwide, if you get a chance to see the Spanish horror masterpiece on the big screen, don’t miss it!
Next week will see all sorts of records broken as Team Jacob takes on Team Edward in the Twilight sequel New Moon. With hype running at unprecedented numbers, expect New Moon to easily land one of the biggest openings of the year.
