Box Office Report: Apes too strong for Diaz and Segel

Worldwide hit sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has managed to hold off competition from Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel’s new comedy Sex Tape to take the top spot on the Australia box office chart for the second weekend in a row. Dawn has received widespread critical praise, with it even being hailed as one of the strongest sequels ever made. This film isn’t going anywhere for the time being. Expect it to hang around on the chart for a while and likely even end up on many ‘Best of 2014’ lists come the end of the year. You can read our Dawn review here.  Coming in at #2 with a decent $2.46 million is Sex Tape, which has been savaged by critics and audiences alike. The film flopped in its opening weekend in the US, making a disappointing US$14.6 million, which was only enough to secure the 4th spot on the US chart. The film is likely to drop rapidly in the coming weeks as negative word of mouth spreads. Read our Sex Tape review here.

Transformers: Age of Extinction took in another $1.21 million over the weekend, which moved it back in front of How to Train Your Dragon 2. Age of Extinction is a worldwide box office smash and currently sits at US$889.6 million worldwide. Despite being on track to have the lowest US total of the franchise, ridiculously big international takings will easily make the film hit the US$1 billion mark soon. Also of note is the fact that Indian indie film The Lunchbox came in at #10 on the Australian chart with $217,231, which isn’t bad considering it is playing in a limited number of theatres.

This week sees the release of a big budget fantasy action pic, a supernatural cop thriller and a broadly comedic television adaptation. Hercules, starring Dwayne Johnson and directed by Brett Ratner, is based on the graphic novel ‘Hercules: The Thracian Wars’. Johnson has become an unlikely movie star in recent years, and his popularity should make the film do relatively well. Deliver Us From Evil stars Eric Bana as real-life New York cop Ralph Sarchie, who works with a priest to solve a case that seems to involve demonic possession. The film comes from proven horror director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and looks to be a terrifying choice for all you horror lovers out there. Finally, this week also brings the release of the much anticipated (?) Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie, based on the popular television series. The film should play well to fans of the show but is highly unlikely to find an audience outside of that.

Hercules, Deliver Us From Evil and Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie  will be released this Thursday, July 24th.

All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo.

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