by Sean Slatter IF magazine May 24, 2022
Australian cinema made a welcome return to box office top three on the weekend as Madman’s Fremantle-shot How To Please a Woman came in behind Marvel juggernaut Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness and Downton Abbey: A New Era.
Leading the way again was Disney’s Doctor Strange sequel, which took in $3.9 million from its third frame for a gross total of $32.8 million, representing a decline of 47 per cent from the previous week. Universal’s latest Downton Abbey installment was a distant second, managing $578,991 from its fourth outing to track at $6.6 million. The film also had its release in the US, where it made a solid $16 million domestic debut.
It was closely followed by How To Please a Woman, which bowed to $501,064 from 294 screens at an average of $1,704 per session to build on a positive initial response from festival screenings in Perth and on the Gold Coast.
Renée Webster’s feature directorial debut stars British comedian and actor Sally Phillips as Gina, a 50-something who has lost her job and is stuck in a passionless marriage.
While Gina has always lived life on the sidelines, she is met with a business opportunity to convert team of well-built moving guys into housecleaners. Clientele soon demand something more – sex, or better yet, pleasure. Gina and her team launch an enterprise that is all about getting intimacy right between people, but she soon has to acknowledge her own appetite in order to make a new life for herself.
Starring alongside Phillips are Erik Thomson, Alexander England, Caroline Brazier, Tasma Walton, Roz Hammond, Cameron Daddo and New Zealander Josh Thomson.
Village Cinemas national programming manager Geoff Chard told IF the film’s opening was comparable to that of fellow Australian releases June Again and Swinging Safari.
“Overall the box office was a little softer than hoped for, with How To Please A Woman being the highest-ranked new opener at just over $500,000 nationally,” he said.
“This is similar to the recent Australian films June Again and Swinging Safari. The location-specific results were quite varied, with some sites (in particular our regional locations) much higher in the rankings, with the majority our suburban multiplexes further down the list.”
Wallis Cinema programming manager David Simpson also said How To Please A Woman had “certain site-specific success” among its locations.
“We are finding that given this is an Aussie film, it is doing well where we customarily have a lot of ex-pat regulars,” he said.