Son of a Gun fails at box office
Another one bites the dust. That's the miserable news coming out of the West Australian film industry, with Julius Avery's bloody heist flick Son of a Gun following These Finals Hours to an early grave.
Son of a Gun made a miniscule $64,680 over 54 locations for a per screen average of $1190 over a weekend that was dominated by Gone Girl ($3.1 million), A Walk Among the Tombstones ($1.1 million) and Tammy ($1.08 million).
Most startling, 42 per cent of that small taking was from WA, which means that almost nobody saw Son of a Gun on the east coast.
It also means that even if you wanted to see Son of a Gun, starring Ewan McGregor and Brenton Thwaites, it will be hard to find by next weekend.
The failure of Son of Gun, which was made at a cost of $12 million and was heavily subsidised by Screen Australia and ScreenWest, will plunge the local film industry into even deeper gloom.
Films both well-reviewed (Felony, Predestination) and poorly received (The Rover, A Little Death) are failing spectacularly, causing the industry to wonder if Australians have lost a taste for home-grown movies.
Expect to see a rush of articles about the demise of the Australian film industry over the coming weeks, with all hope now resting on Russell Crowe's Gallipoli epic The Water Diviner, which is due out on Boxing Day.
