Dream factory indeed
December 23 2002
By David Dale
The major cinemagoers in Australia are 13-year-old boys, occasionally joined by their 15-year-old sisters and their nine-year-old cousins. That is the conclusion to be drawn from the 20 films that made most money at the box office during 2002.
The list contains 10 films aimed directly at pubescent males, four designed for kids under 10, and two whose primary audience is adolescent females. Only four could squeeze into the “adult” category – Ocean’s 11, A Beautiful Mind, Black Hawk Down and The Panic Room, although many mature sentimentalists joined the queues for My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham, and some teens enjoyed the action in Ocean’s 11 and Black Hawk Down. Fantasy was the key component of 15 of the films. The only representatives of “reality” were A Beautiful Mind (about a mathematician triumphing over schizophrenia) and Black Hawk Down (about a failed US mission in Somalia). Formulas and franchises dominated the list. The top film was the first part of a trilogy, the second biggest earner was the fifth in a series, and numbers three, four, 10, 12 and 18 are either sequels or have spawned sequels. Number six is to become a TV sitcom.
This year’s list is very different from last year’s. In 2001, the major moviegoers were apparently 19-year-old girls, with chick flicks (such as Moulin Rouge, and Bridget Jones’s Diary) taking eight spots in the top 20 and kidflicks (such as Shrek and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) taking four.
Not one Australian film makes this year’s top 20, although two Aussies starred in The Fellowship of the Ring, an Aussie played an American in Black Hawk Down, an Australian-trained American starred in Signs, an Australian-trained New Zealander starred in A Beautiful Mind, and Aussie studios were used for Attack of the Clones and Scooby-Doo.
The top locally financed films of the year were the bowling comedy Crackerjack (likely to make $7.5 million), and the historical drama Rabbit-proof Fence ($7 million).
All but one of the top 20 were American-financed. The exception, Bend It Like Beckham, is a low-budget British comedy that made its $13 million by staying in a small number of cinemas for 20 weeks. The blockbusters opened in hundreds of cinemas and made most of their money in the first four weeks.
The top 20
Movie $million
1. The Fellowship of the Ring $46
2. Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones $33.5
3. Harry Potter…. Chamber of Secrets $33
4. Spider-Man $30.5
5. Monsters Inc $25
6. My Big Fat Greek Wedding $24
7. Ocean’s 11 $22
8. Ice Age $20
9. Austin Powers in Goldmember $19
10. Scooby-Doo $18
11. Men In Black 2 $17.5
12. The Bourne Identity $13
13. Bend It Like Beckham $13
14. Lilo and Stitch $13
15. Signs $12
16. Minority Report $12
17. XXX $11
18. Black Hawk Down $10.5
19. The Panic Room $10.5
**on the original list, #9 was missing, hence only 19, not 20