The release of Hugh Jackman‘s final Wolverine movie Logan has helped lift weekend box office close to $16m, the best result since the final weekend of January.
Weekend-on-weekend box office for the top 20 lifted just over 25% with the #1 movie accounting for 50% of all ticket sales.
#1 Logan $7.85m
The global hit shone in this market too as the final of the Wolverine trilogy spinoff opened on 414 screens with a screen average of $18,966. Fifty Shades Darker opened on more screens, but it didn’t get anywhere near Logan’s screen average which is the best this year, outperforming Lion which managed just over $16,000 per screen for two successive weekends. This is also the best opening of the year so far, outstripping Fifty Shades‘ $6.16m debut.
#2 Hidden Figures $1.81m
It might not have won any Oscars, but the movie about NASA scientists garnered three nominations which has helped keep it near the top after two weekends at #1. Box office to-date is sitting at $11.76m and it boasted the second-best screen average over the weekend – $5,630.
#3 Lion $1.02m
Six Oscar nominations and no win, but that hasn’t slowed momentum too much. The film remains top three after seven weeks with box office to climb past $27m this week when the film will go close to securing a place in the all-time Australian box office top five. The movie remains on over 300 screens, but that number has to dip soon.
#4 Jasper Jones $632,000
The Aussie movie distributed by Madman made it onto 222 screens at a screen average of $2,849. By the end of its first full week it should have grossed close to $1m.
#5 Fifty Shades Darker $631,000
Dollars dipped 56% this weekend as the movie shed 110 screens to 248 with a screen average of $2,545. Total taking to date are $6.36m.