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Lion roars to record opening weekend at Australian box office

The awards-season contender has had the biggest opening of an independent Australian movie ever at the local box office.

Karl Quinn

The Nicole Kidman film Lion has had a massive first weekend at the local box office, recording the highest opening ever for an independent Australian movie.

Only four pictures have taken more in their debut locally than Lion's $4.15 million, and all were studio-backed: The Great Gatsby, Australia, Happy Feet and Mad Max: Fury Road. Including previews, the film's local take now sits just under $5 million.

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A five-year-old Indian boy is adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.

That's a terrific result, even if this is a film that comes with unusually high expectations. So high, in fact, that The Weinstein Company bought the rights to distribute it for a reported $US 12 million ($A16 million) – in May 2014, before a single frame had been shot.

The awards-friendly Lion is based on the true story of Saroo Brierly, an Indian boy raised by his adopted parents – played by Kidman and David Wenham – in Tasmania after becoming separated from his family as a result of accidentally boarding a train to Calcutta, 1500 kilometres from his home. As a grown man (played by Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel), he uses Google Earth to track down his birth family.

Weinstein unveiled the film in the US in November, in a bid to qualify for Oscar contention. Lion is still on relatively limited release there, with plans to go wider, and has to date taken $US16.4 million.  

Like The King's Speech, with which Weinstein struck Oscars gold in 2011, Lion is produced by See-Saw Pictures, jointly operated by Australian Emile Sherman and Englishman Iain Canning. That film won four Academy Awards – best picture, best director (Tom Hooper), best actor (Colin Firth) and best original screenplay (David Seidler).

Lion did not win any of the four Golden Globes, including best picture, for which it had been nominated earlier this month, but that may not be such a bad sign. The King's Speech was nominated for seven, but won just one, for Firth's performance.

This year's Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday January 24 (US time).

Karl Quinn is on facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on twitter @karlkwin

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