Big box office for Wake in Fright

The newly restored and digitally remastered version of Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 outback Australian classic Wake in Fright finished its first week in cinemas yesterday, collecting some very impressive box office receipts. The film’s first week total came to $62,393, which might seem paltry compared with, say, the $13+ million Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen gobbled up at the Aussie box office last weekend, but there are at least two crucial differences: a) Wake in Fright is of course nearly four decades old and b) it opened on just four screens across the country (two in Sydney and two in Melbourne). That amounts to a whopping average of $10,137 per screen – pretty damn good business for the four exhibitors. As Inside Film magazine observed, Wake in Fright’s first week four-screen box office tally surpasses the entire theatrical gross of recent Australian films Beautiful and Closed for Winter.

I hope to make it to a screening this weekend or early next week; expect a review soon. Wake in Fright is a terrific thriller – taut, ballsy, beautifully shot – though the only time I watched it was in far less than ideal circumstances: the film has never been released on VHS or DVD so I saw it on YouTube in 12 parts. Not too long after, news arrived of its impending restoration. The book it is based on (of the same name, by Kenneth Cook) is, BTW, one of my favourite Australian novels. Wake in Fright’s theatrical release will expand shortly, opening in Adelaide and Brisbane on July 23. For more information about screenings visit the official website.