Box office 20 May 2019 – Blockbuster frenzy, two small Oz releases and Top End Wedding

Returns dropped by $2m this weekend, all from the non-blockbuster pictures. We try to prove that election night is to blame.
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Woman at War did best in its home market of Iceland. The next best, by a long shot, was New Zealand. Over here, that image suits the mood of last weekend. 

The last pre-election weekend of May 13 we had $10.52m in box office from two blockbusters and a total of $16.1m off the top twenty. In election weekend, we had three tentpoles including the new John Wick picture, which added up to $10.533m. But the total box office for the same period dropped to $14m. So $2m disappeared from the arthouse/comedy/genre/drama market, which means a third of that audience vanished. 

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.