The very strong screen average of A$11,206 for the opening weekend of Columbia TriStar's Bad Boys II wasn't quite enough to push BVI's Pirates Of The Caribbean off the top of the mast. The Boys grossed A$3,059,117 and the Pirates grossed A$3,476,680, but it was only Pirates' second weekend and it is on 100 more screens

Another BVI picture, Finding Nemo, which was pushed down into third spot, continues to show understandable resilience given the quality of the film and its Australian setting. There's only about 20 films that have ever grossed more than A$25 million in Australia and this animated picture has achieved that in less than a month.

And it is the BVI picture Freaky Friday that was the best performer of the other newcomers. It opened in sixth position, which was one spot above Rugrats Go Wild and three spots above Agent Cody Banks.

Achieving a tenth placing in the chart was Palace Films' Japanese Story starring Toni Colette, which played previews on 39 screens and yet managed a screen average of $2,445. Hopefully this bodes well for the local film's future fortunes.