Australian Box Office - Week 8 22nd February 2010

No	Movie Title	Distributor	Cinemas	Averages	$ Week	%	$ Total	WIR
1	Valentine's Day	Warner Bros	373	$7,457	2,781,309	-63%	12,007,516	2
2	Shutter Island	Paramount	250	$11,118	2,779,513	NA	2,779,513	1
3	Avatar	Fox	254	$7,378	1,874,114	-34%	105,454,142	10
4	Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief	Fox	229	$4,696	1,075,472	-34%	3,059,486	2
5	The Wolfman	Universal	246	$2,978	732,575	-61%	3,142,879	2
6	From Paris With Love	Hoyts	153	$3,543	542,129	NA	542,129	1
7	The Blind Side	Roadshow	181	$1,896	343,152	NA	348,786	PR
8	The Hurt Locker	Roadshow	46	$6,671	306,874	NA	394,071	1
9	It's Complicated	Universal	150	$1,955	293,257	-29%	15,272,253	7
10	Up In The Air	Paramount	123	$2,368	291,221	-40%	7,475,950	6
11	Edge of Darkness	Icon	195	$1,278	249,186	-66%	3,159,244	3
12	Crazy Heart	Fox	56	$3,966	222,122	NA	222,122	1
13	Invictus	WB	124	$1,580	195,975	-61%	6,604,295,749	5
14	Law Abiding Citizen	Roadshow	121	$1,560	188,739	-61%	4,649,682	4
15	My Name Is Khan	Fox	37	$4,699	173,136	-60%	762,584	2
16	Bran Nue Dae	Roadshow	113	$1,532	173,136	-33%	6,835,990	6
17	Daybreakers	Hoyts	124	$1,374	170,398	-64%	2,201,749	3
18	Celine: Through The Eyes of The World	Sony	45	$2,947	132,611	NA	132,611	1
19	Precious	Icon	30	$4,416	132,485	-29%	792,714	3
20	Tooth Fairy	Fox	111	$1,042	115,677	-54%	10,262,512	6

The Road has to be considered a disappointment both in terms of the box office results and the general lack of nominations at the major awards. It's quite sad really that such an excellent movie can go unappreciated while Twitards flock to the cinematic equivalent of a happy meal. Pass me the bourbon, I may need help in getting through this one. In contrast Roadshow lodged themselves a blockbuster with the stylish Sherlock Holmes exceeding all expectations. Hey maybe it was down to the BlackHouse comic getting people fired up. Sony couldn't get anything happening with Nine, Australia joining the rest of the world in being uninterested really. Bright Star proved to have a solid limited run for Roadshow and will no doubt lead to more period romances. And Sony dumped A Prophet to very limited results.

ScaryMinds score in '10

0 for 4 - I managed to undercall Shutter Island surprisingly, it had been suggested my prediction was an overcook, but what can you do. Seems The Wolfman's first weekend result was an abreviation.

Valentine's Day, although dropping heavily on weekend two, got into a dog fight with Shutter Island over the weekend as the movies traded places in the top spot. It was a narrow victory to the Rom-Com, but it looks like the opening weekend figure is not going to be backed by a decent enough multiplier to propel it over the blockbuster boundary. For it's part Shutter Island went through all the motions of claiming it had no horror content and naturally scored an excellent opening weekend result ... for a horror movie. Damn was hoping we had the first weekend win of the year for the dark genre. Avatar showing unbelievable legs managed third spot, but I'm kind of over talking about it. Surprisingly The Hurt Locker didn't go better after the recent BAFTA win.

It's back to the past with the hold over horror flicks dropping heavily, though both the ones in the top twenty are going to lodge solid results when the curtain comes down. The Wolfman looks set for something in the vicinity of $4 million while Daybreakers is going to get it about right with $2.5 million. Great result there for a local horror flick, and with a few more on the way it could turn out to be an excellent year for local horror flick buffs.

What's Coming Up, if anything

Nothing to report this coming weekend, as horror fans take a breather before the next rampage headed our way.

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