Australians across the nation chose the movies as their date of choice this Valentine’s Day, with cinemas delivering the biggest February 14 box office result since 2016, generating $6.27 million nationwide.
Driving the result was Wuthering Heights, which opened last Thursday alongside its Australian premiere at Sydney’s State Theatre, with lead actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in attendance.
Across its Thursday to Sunday opening weekend, it delivered 255,000 admissions, $6.1million at the box office and became the ninth largest opening ever for a romance film in Australia. Highlighting its widespread appeal across Australia, 43 per cent of the total weekend box office admissions were delivered from Wuthering Heights.
Crime 101 also delivered a strong opening weekend with 95,000 admissions and $2 million at the box office. The LA-based heist thriller, starring Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, and Mark Ruffalo, and directed by Bart Layton, earned strong critical acclaim with an 87 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score.
With Australian stars front and centre, both films outperformed their US openings relative to market size, highlighting the strength of the Australian box office.
Audience momentum also extended beyond new releases, with continued strong performances from Shelter, Marty Supreme, Send Help, and The Housemaid.
“The depth and variety of content currently in Australian cinemas speaks to the strength of the theatrical market. This weekend alone, six genres featured in the top ten, giving audiences across all demographics a compelling reason to head to the cinema. That breadth of storytelling isn’t slowing down,” said Guy Burbidge, managing director of Val Morgan Cinema.
“Across the next two months we have highly anticipated titles like Scream 7, GOAT, Reminders of Him, Project Hail Mary, Hoppers, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2 all releasing by the end of April.
He added, “The slate continues to strengthen across Q2, anchored by some of the world’s most successful and beloved IP including The Mandalorian and Grogu and Minions & Monsters, to Toy Story 5, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Moana, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
