Wasted on the Young opens to $965 screen average
The thriller Wasted on the Young opened with $52,118 on 54 screens – an aveage of $965.14 per screen, performing below other limited releases such as the documentary Inside Job ($57,000 on seven screens) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest ($711,000 on 99 screens).
Wasted on the Young is Paramount’s second local release in the last 12 months, following the successful Tomorrow, When the War Began – which was also aimed at a young demographic, but had the advantage of being the adaptation of a successful literary series and a number of television stars in its cast.
The top 10 films in Australia (March 3-6) were:
| 1 | Hall Pass | Roadshow | 1,974,169 |
| 2 | The Adjustment Bureau | Universal | 1,792,943 |
| 3 | I Am Number Four | Disney | 1,309,041 |
| 4 | The King’s Speech | Paramount/Transmission | 1,076,124 |
| 5 | Gnomeo and Juliet | Disney | 1,066,119 |
| 6 | Unknown | Roadshow | 558,237 |
| 7 | The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest | Rialto | 488,891 |
| 8 | No Strings Attached | Paramount | 384,460 |
| 9 | Black Swan | Fox | 382,032 |
| 10 | Conviction | Fox | 380,642 |
No real surprise here.
I don’t recognize any of the actors in the film and the poster is meaningless. I don’t think the name of the film hold much appeal to the youth market either…
I think WASTED ON THE YOUNG is a very stylish low budget debut feature that deserves to be seen and possibly would be if it opened in less cinemas and was given a chance for word of mouth to do what limited publicity budgets cannot.
Shame about the poor box office. From what I’ve seen, WOTY looks slick, well-shot and classy. I guess the irony here is that the very audience it’s trying to tap into is, well, fickle and challenging to connect with. Hopefully it finds an audience on DVD.
Looks like all that Paramount marketing money really will be wasted on the young!
To say this is a very stylish film considering its budget is a little insulting to the people involved. The quality of this film is there for all to see.
Brilliantly executed on all fronts, from the initial casting, to the selected cast and finally to its crew. p.s The 3 main leads have great careers to look forward to, in particular Alexander Russell.
Teens don’t want to have to think that hard when they go to the movies, they don’t want to be confronted with the hardest parts of their lives – they want to escape all that. It all comes down to story. Although beautifully shot and expertly finished, WOTY is too compelling to watch and difficult for the demo to digest. Paramount did a fantastic job promoting it, they just didn’t bite. That being said I think it’ll definitely find a jaded international audience.
Come on guys, besides those who were part of the film in some way, it didn’t appeal to anyone. It lacked logic and the acting and story were so so (more TV than film).
Controversy for the sake of controversy does not make a good film. Wish this country would start recognising quality in the work (art).
Chopper, Wolf Creek, Cedar Boys and Animal Kingdom are the only real standouts we’ve had in the last 10 years or so.
These guys are filmmakers.