Older women definitely got their own back against the starlets in New Zealand when Calendar Girls opened in top position in its first official weekend in the charts. The film took NZ$332,452 from 38 screens for BVI, which was double the gross of the other major opener, 20th Century Fox's 28 Days Later, which was on nearly as many screens.

Calendar Girls' screen average was NZ$8,749, which was also more than double every other film in the top 20 except second placed American Pie: The Wedding from UIP, which was on its second weekend outing, and Fresh Films' All Or Nothing, which is only on two screens. In fact, All Or Nothing, was the only film that did better this weekend than the previous, partly because two prints became available compared to the previous weeks single print.

With school holiday frivolity finishing a week ago the total weekend gross was almost half the size of each of the two previous weekends. The take on some individual films dropped as much as 80%.