Jurassic World: Dominion dropped its leathery monsters onto the world market this weekend, to make $12.12m in our cinemas. There is something about that numerical zone because Top Gun: Maverick launched with $13.8m, while Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness kicked off with $14.53m. The Batman sauntered in with $11.54m.
Read: Jurassic World: Dominion review – people are for eating
Read: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness review – nearly magic
Read: Top Gun Maverick review – Tom Cruise soars in a sky-high spectacle
But these small(ish) differences increase week by week. Top Gun: Maverick has made $45.5m in three weeks, so it is still top of the heap compared to the others.
Jurassic World: Dominion made $204m in the US from 4,676 screens and $350m internationally to top out at $558m in total. The estimated budget is $265m, so it has almost doubled that in week one – $75m of which comes from China, after a long drought in that market by the largest and flashiest US films.
The UK has yet to launch Jurassic World: Dominion, so Top Gun: Maverick is still on top with a weekend gross of $10m in week-three. It has made around $70m altogether, which is almost the same as Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in its first three weeks at the time.
The Australian films
How to Please a Woman has just passed $2.03m in four weeks, taking $136,000 (down 35%) as it loses 61 screens to hit 195. That is pretty good. The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, out for six weeks, is on $1.28m with $104,000 this weekend, down 42 screens to 130 with a loss of 34% in the take.
Read: How to Please a Woman review: sex work comedy with ups and downs
Read: The Drover’s Wife: a terrific Outback Western
How does the much-anticipated Drover’s Wife compare with other films which the audience will see as Indigenous-themed over the last 20 years? I have compiled a list and corrected the numbers for inflation; I have included films by non-Indigenous directors. With some distance to go, The Drover’s Wife, with $1.28m, is ahead of The Tracker, Mad Bastards, Here I Am, Toomelah, Mystery Road, Satellite Boy, Charlie’s Country and Goldstone.
Here is the whole list:
The reputation of many of these films has nothing to do with their box office success.
Next up is Lightyear from Walt Disney, in a useless time for Australian exhibitors though it will do better in the US summer. Also launched is Men, a horror film from Alex Garland, the novelist and screenwriter turned director, whose films Ex Machina and Annihilation are superb exercises in style and genre.
Read: Men – a graphic and menacing horror
