Dov Kornits

Teaser Trailer: Squid Game: Season 2 - This Week

Unsung Auteurs: Shaun Grant - An Appreciation

Are you not entertained? Ridley Scott's highly anticipated sequel, Gladiator II, which Paramount spent a record amount marketing, including a massive star tour and a premiere to end all premieres, has gone straight to the top of the charts, but for how long? With Wicked set to release on Thursday, also accompanied by a tour to end all tours and a premiere to match, its bound to push Glads to the #2 spot, and then it's on for young and old, so to speak.

The box office surprise of the year, DreamWorks Animation's adaptation of Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot is an epic adventure that follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.

A strong opening for what some believe is the best entry in the Venom franchise, allegedly the last in the series.

The sequel to surprise 2022 hit Smile cheered up cinemas this weekend after the disappointment of the Joker sequel, while Terrifier 3 expanded by 40 screens and Adam Elliot's much-anticipated Memoir of a Snail didn't quite deliver on all of the gushy reviews and interviews.

Well, Joker: Folie à Deux's reign at the top didn't last long ... whilst The Wild Robot continues to impress through strong word of mouth.

Joker 2 opened wide and respectably, as would be expected from the sequel to a massive hit, however, the reviews haven't been kind, so it will be interesting to see how long its reign at the top will last. The love for seeing classics on the big screen continues, with Seven Samurai doing great numbers on limited release. Meanwhile, Australia's problem with The Babadook remains, with the anniversary re-release performing even worse than its mishandled original theatrical release a decade ago.  

So, how did Francis Ford Coppola's decades-in-the-making self-funded pet project fare at the Australian box office? Mega or Megaflopolis?

James McAvoy's standout performance in Speak No Evil seems to have worked a treat, with the horror/thriller remake of the 2022 Danish chiller of the same name doing respectable business on wide release.