Box Office: Australian share of market now at 20%

The Dry and Penguin Bloom have now turned into a Demon Duo, turning heads in the multiplex foyers to local stars and local stories.

Penguin Bloom came through with $1.51m on its first weekend to take top spot, running on 398 screens in 300 cinemas. The opening day box office was $289k, so the total right now is running $1.70m. The Dry did significantly better with $2.61m on its first weekend so Penguin Bloom may have more trouble reaching $10m as the holidays finish and more films arrive to compete.

But there has been doubt in the exhibition sector about Penguin Bloom because pre-release opinion is a bit divided. We may find the picture doing better in its second weekend, if it gets the right word of mouth. 

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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.