Consumers around the country had spent millions at retail outlets buying Christmas gifts and splurging on that Christmas turkey or ham. It was a wonder if the box office would do well on Boxing Day. There was no need for doubt as the box office broke records. The biggest Boxing Day EVER at the Australian Box Office.
Was it a Christmas present? The strong list of films released? Or you just wanted your screaming kids to be quiet for two hours? Either way, the fierce Australian heat (Especially here in Perth) may have been reason to flock to an air-conditioned cinema with a choc bomb in hand. Here’s the Boxing Day scoop:
‘Boxing Day 2012 has been a record-breaking one with the top 10 movies alone generating A$10.8M+ in box office receipts and recording just under 1 million movie-goers enjoying the big screen experience of the cinema within a single day.
The Hobbit took #1 position and also broke the record for the biggest film ever to be released on Boxing Day with $5.9M GBO. Les Miserables, Wreck It Ralph, Parental Guidance and Skyfall rounded out the Top 5 and all drew big audiences.
Marc Woodridge, Chairman of the MPDAA and Managing Director Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors Pty Ltd said “This year’s diverse line up on Boxing Day has proven to be much stronger than any previous year. The result clearly demonstrates the on-going appeal of the cinema which continues to provide a great value out of home experience for a broad audience.”
This year’s seven new Boxing Day releases made a total of $9.7M on at the box office , including The Hobbit, Les Miserables, Wreck It Ralph, Parental Guidance, Quartet, Samsara and Sightseers.
The previous record Boxing Day was in 2003 which saw 7 new releases taking $6,3M, driven largely by the release of Lord of The Rings: Return of the Kings which was, until now, the highest grossing film released on Boxing Day in Australia.
The top 3 films – The Hobbit, Les Miserables and Wreck It Ralph – all took in excess of a million dollars. This has not happened since 2004 when Blade: Trinity, The Incredibles and Meet the Fockers took $5,291,260 between them. This year the top 3 films took $8.8m.’
What film are you most interested to see this weekend?
