MOULIN ROUGE (2001) has broken box office records in Australia.

The film starring NICOLE KIDMAN and EWAN MCGREGOR has beaten Crocodile Dundee II (1988)'s record for the most money taken on its first day by an Australian movie.

Moulin Rouge took Au$575,596 compared with Au$575,182 set by Crocodile Dundee 2 in 1988, reports Australia's THE AGE newspaper.

A spokesman for the film's distributor, 20TH CENTURY FOX FILMS AUSTRALIA, says he believes Moulin Rouge to have taken somewhere between Au$3. 5 million and Au$4 million in it's opening weekend.

The record for an opening weekend for an Australian film is held by DISH, the (2000) which took Au$2,996,726 in its first four days of release last year(00). [Moulin Rouge (2001) is scheduled to open in America on Friday (01JUN01) and in Britain on 7th September (01). (KW/WNWCAN)

Source: WENN