The Sun-Herald

The Box Office: Horror sells

This edition of the blog is now a heritage item -- worth studying but no longer current. For the latest media trends, go to ttp://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare

Sickening sadism is what Australians want at the flicks right now, with jokes about death a close second. Saw IV, the trequel to a scary series devised by a couple of Aussie boys, sold $2.4 million worth of tickets in its first week, just beating Britain's Death at a Funeral, which has totalled $5.4 million in three weeks.

What we don't want is tragic tales of journalists murdered by religious fundamentalists, even if they star Angelina Jolie, so A Mighty Heart is about to drop out of the chart with a mere $806,000 in two weeks. We also have no interest in feminist working-class comedies, so Waitress (pictured) managed just $276,000 in its first week.

Good Luck Chuck came in third (after Saw and Funeral) with $1.1m, followed by George Clooney's Michael Clayton (total $1.8 m in two weeks) and John Travolta's Hairspray (total $15.7m in 7 weeks).

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.