Mediaweek editor James Manning looks at the weekend box office for February 22-25, 2018.
For a second weekend the movie world has all been about Black Panther, the groundbreaking Marvel Studios release that is predicted to pass the US$1b mark globally with speculation the movie could become the fourth highest-grossing superhero movie ever.
After pushing weekend revenue up 43% two weeks ago, Black Panther was a clear leader last weekend too although total box office numbers dipped 13% to $16.31m.
#1 Black Panther $7.51m
Takings dipped 29%. After accounting for over 50% of takings last weekend, Black Panther was just short of 50% of the take over the weekend. Screens showing the movie were down from 620 to 574. Screen average was down from 17,000 to $13,000. In just 11 days the movie has grossed $22.13m in Australia.
#2 Game Night $1.95m
The Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams comedy mystery was the highest-ranked new release on the weekend with a screen average of $6,807 from 287 screens.
#3 Fifty Shades Freed $1.15m
After its third weekend the final of the three movies in the series is close to a total of $13m with a weekend screen average of $3,408 from its 339 screens.
#4 Finding Your Feet $1.01m
The comedy drama with a wonderful cast including Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie and Joanna Lumley just made it over $1m from 268 screens with a screen average of $3,773.
#5 The Greatest Showman $988,000
Still in the top five after a remarkable nine weekends, the movie is still on 238 screens and has just passed $30m.
Outside the top 5: Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle still resides in the top 20 at #14 with a total of $48.15m. It needs just over $1m to make the all-time top 10 list for Australia. Sitting at #10 at present is The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003) on $49.3m. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is also now the second highest-grossing to be released in 2017, trailing only The Last Jedi, which did $58m, putting it #3 on the all-time list.