"Australia" rakes in the big bucks after all

You've probably heard that the recent movie Australia was Hugh Jackman's and Nicole Kidman's all-time flop. Right? The pundits could have spoken way too soon!

Here's a choice quote from the feature article on The Australian:

"Luhrmann's romantic epic starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman has been pilloried since its November premiere, with Kidman particularly enduring vituperative reviews from columnists and commentators for what is a solid performance.

Yet despite the slings and arrows, Australia is set to become the second highest grossing Australian film in history (in unadjusted figures) in this country, second to Crocodile Dundee, and the fifth highest grossing Australian film worldwide (behind Happy Feet, Crocodile Dundee I and II and Babe).

"If the industry sees this as a failure, send us more failures," says Peter Howard, who runs cinemas in the NSW towns of Taree and Tuncurry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25004481-15803,00.html

Read the whole thing -- go on! Turns out, the movie did poorly in North America, and frankly there's no surprise there: there's no Americans in it, and American audiences are so focused on American actors and accents, this alone would do in the movie.

(D'you know, whe Mad Max was released over there, they overdubbed Mel Gibson ... with an American voice speaking US slang! He was an Aussie at the time, if you remember. 21 years old. And still sane. I know about the Mad Max soundtrack for a fact. I've seen it -- or do I meant heard it?)

Anyway -- down here in Aus, Australia still screening in the rural communities, and doing, uh, quite nicely. The problem is that if a movie "fails" in the continental USA, it's said to be a failure per se ... which (like the old song sez) ain't necessarily so.

Cool news, this!