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Australian-Singapore horror film Bait 3D has bombed at the box office, grossing less than $370,000 in its opening weekend.

The film, about sharks attacking a group of people trapped in a supermarket and car park flooded by a tsunami, grossed just $365,187 across 283 screens for a screen average of $1290. It is one of the worst recent performances by an Australian film in wide release.

Distributor Paramount also had a poor result with teen drama Wasted on the Young, which grossed $52,907 across 54 screens in its opening weekend of March 2011 (for a screen average $979). Fox's Matching Jack opened with $261,505 across 186 screens (for a screen average of $1405) in September 2010 and back in 2008, Disney's $6 million teen drama Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger took $302,033 across 134 screens (for a screen average of $2253).

The teen horror market is not a popular one in Australia with the exception of films such as the Paranormal Activity franchise and Wolf Creek. Bait...

Family adventure film Nim's Island 2, starring Bindi Irwin, has begun shooting on the Gold Coast.

The film also stars Us actor Matthew Lillard (The Descendants, Scooby Doo), who plays marine scientist Jack, the father of Nim (Bindi Irwin), as well as local actors John Waters (Looking Through the Glass Onion, Offspring), Toby Wallace (Surviving Georgia, Neighbours), Nathan Derrick (Rush, Bed of Roses), Sebastian Gregory (Neighbours, Accidents Happen) and Jack Pearson (Winners & Losers).

The original Nim's Island grossed $US48 million in North America and almost $6.2 million at the Australian box office. While it was shot in Queensland, it did not qualify as an Australian production, unlike the sequel which is now underway.

Nim's Island was a far bigger production, starring Jodi Foster, and was distributed by Universal. The sequel will be distributed in Australia by Pinnacle Films, which has specialised in limited theatrical releases, while international distribution is being handled by Walden Entertainment.

Here are the new MPAA ratings from Bulletin No: 2109.

American Bandits Rated PG For western violence, language and brief smoking. The Baster Rated PG-13 For mature thematic content, sexual material including dialogue, some nudity, drug use and language. Release Date: Tba 2010 Cheech And Chong: Hey Watch This Rated R For drug content, crude sex-related humor and language throughout. The Cry Of The Owl Rated R For violence and language. The Debt Rated R For some violence and language. Release Date: Tba 2010 Down Terrace Rated R For violence, pervasive language and some drug use. Father Of Invention Rated PG-13 For sexual material and language. Group Sex Rated R For strong crude sexual dialogue, sexuality, nudity and language throughout. Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger Rated PG-13 For thematic elements, language, some sexual content and brief teen smoking. The Last International Playboy Rated R For sexual content, nudity and language. The Shadow Within...

MPAA ratings: Feb. 24, 2010. The following feature-length motion pictures have been reviewed and rated by the Classification and Rating Administration pursuant to the Motion Picture Classification and Rating program. Each of the designated ratings is defined as follows under the Motion Picture Classification and Rating program.

G -- General Audiences. All ages admitted.

PG -- Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG -13 --Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

R -- Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Nc-17 -- No One 17 And Under Admitted.

Film Distributor Reason Rating American Bandits

E1 Entertainment U.S. LP

Rated for western violence, language and brief smoking.

PG Baster, The

Miramax Films

Rated for mature thematic content, sexual material including dialogue, some nudity, drug use and language.

PG-13 Cheech and Chong: Hey Watch This

Vivendi Entertainment Rated for drug content, crude sex-related humor and language throughout.

Generation Kplus

SYDNEY -- Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is an Australian coming-of-age comedy that's as self-consciously quirky as its title.

First-time writer-director Cathy Randall would have done well to dial down the eccentricity and concentrate on evening out the tone, which oscillates between cutesy and creepy with a jarring third-act detour into melodrama.

The misfit Jewish girl of the title (played by newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) bears more than a passing resemblance to Heather Matarazzo's nerdy 12-year-old in Welcome to the Dollhouse. But Randall doesn't have the fine-tuned satirical sensibility that allowed Todd Solondz to hit just the right note between comedy and pain.

The presence of Toni Collette and Oscar-nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) should help its profile, but this Disney-backed film is too left of center to appeal to the mainstream when it opens March 20 in Australia.

Esther takes a kitchen-sink approach to the teen issues it canvasses -- bullying, peer pressure, family dysfunction and sexual awakening among them -- so there's something for everyone as far as the adolescent target audience is concerned.

But some of it is dubious fare. Esther's back-alley experimentation with a classmate, for example, is more disquieting than droll. And the behavior exhibited by her number-crunching twin brother Jacob (Christian Byers) is not so much idiosyncratic as downright scary. Little wonder the entire family winds up in a psychiatrist's office.

Esther is a tiny, beetle-browed 13-year-old tormented by her perfectionist mother's (Essie Davis) preparations for her upcoming bat-mitzvah and by the taunting of classmates at her ultra-conformist all-girls private school. The girls make fun of her dorky look and peculiar habits, and she spends lonely lunch hours talking to God through a toilet bowl. It's that kind of quirky.

Her oddness catches the eye of Sunni (Castle-Hughes), a tough-nut drummer from a nearby public school, who befriends Esther. Together they hatch a plan: Esther borrows Sunni's spare school uniform and secretly changes schools, fooling her parents while exploring an exciting new universe that includes hanging out with the cool kids and Sunni's hip, laid-back mother, Mary (Collette.)

In her desperation to fit in, Esther's natural adolescent self-absorption takes an unpleasant turn, and she starts to alienate everyone (except the pet duckling named Normal that follows her everywhere and is somewhat labored as a metaphor.)

Production designer Nell Hanson, costume designer Shareen Beringer and cinematographer Anna Howard use a Skittles-colored palette to create a heightened reality that mirrors Esther's internal fantasy world. The film boasts a great indie soundtrack dominated by upbeat Australian bands.

HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER

Tama Films

Credits:

Screenwriter-director: Cathy Randall

Producer: Miriam Stein

Executive producers: Heather Ogilvie, Stephen Hays, Peter Graham, Anton Rosenberg, Toni Collette

Director of photography: Anna Howard

Production designer: Nell Hanson

Music: Guy Gross

Co-producer: Harry Clein

Costume designer: Shareen Beringer

Editor: Dany Cooper

Cast:

Esther: Danielle Catanzariti

Sunni: Keisha Castle-Hughes

Mary: Toni Collette

Jacob: Christian Byers

Grace: Essie Davis

Osmond: Russell Dykstra

Running time -- 103 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Toni Collette has landed the title role in Showtime's comedy pilot The United States of Tara, a single-camera comedy from Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television.

Collette will play Tara, a wife and mother who has multiple-personality syndrome. The project will show Tara in all her personalities, including an aggressive male biker, a promiscuous teenage girl and a Martha Stewart-like homemaker.

"When you're casting a show that requires an actress to not only play one complex character, but in this case several, the road begins and ends with Toni Collette," Showtime Networks president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt said. "All of us at Showtime and DreamWorks are thrilled to have one of the best young actresses of her generation come aboard this project."

The pilot is set to shoot in 2008. Diablo Cody (Juno) is writing and producing, with DreamWorks TV's Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank serving as executive producers.

Collette was nominated for an Oscar for her role in The Sixth Sense and earned Golden Globe noms for Little Miss Sunshine and Muriel's Wedding. She also received Golden Globe and Emmy noms for the miniseries Tsunami: The Aftermath.

Her recent and upcoming film credits include Evening, Nothing Is Private and Hey! Hey! It's Esther Blueburger.

Collette is repped by Endeavor, Shanahan Management in Sydney and attorney Debrahcq Klein.