November
18 Nielsen on "Australia:" Australia who?

"Australia" is looking barren. As Claude Brodesser-Akner reports, Nielsen numbers on Baz Luhrmann's $130 million epic don't look good: "Overall, the film has a 5% unaided awareness, and only 60% of respondents said they were aware of the movie when its title was mentioned to them. Among those who were aware of the film, only 29% expressed definite interest, and only 6% said it would be their first choice at the box office." Numbers were even lower for men, and for women under 25.

Older women, who likely heard Oprah declare "I have not been this excited about a movie since I don't know when" on her show Nov. 10, are more generous; 40% of those aware of "Australia" showed "definite interest" in seeing it. Says a non-Fox marketing exec, "That's good, but older females are the hardest to get to go to the movies, especially when your partner takes one look at the movie and says, 'Not a fucking chance. Take a girlfriend.'... If you can't get young girls interested in this movie, I don't know how you come out of this. There's just too much [Academy Award] competition then." [AdAge]