Australian horror film The Babadook has earned more money in its opening weekend in the UK than during its entire Australian cinematic run.

Jennifer Kent’s feature film debut took in £347,512 ($633,000) over three days when it opened in the UK on 24 October. In comparison, the film’s six-week distribution run locally earned $256,000.

The film centres on a struggling, suburban mother played by Essie Davies and her disturbed son (Noah Davies). Made on a modest $2.5m budget, The Babadook was buoyed by strong reviews locally and internationally. Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw gave the film four stars, calling it a “clever, nasty, clammily claustrophobic chiller”.

To date the film has also made more in France (US$1.09m) and Thailand (US$335,000) than in Australia, according to Box Office Mojo.

The film was distributed in Australia through Umbrella Entertainment and by Icon in the UK. Umbrella’s theatrical manager, Richard Moore, pointed to the significant advertising campaign that accompanied the film’s British release, which he estimates at £1m.

“The UK figures are good, certainly. But if you spend a million pounds you’re going to have to make four million to profit, so let’s see what happens in the end,” he says.

Moore would not disclose the budget of the Australian campaign but says the film is set to break even. Given its limited 13-screen release in Australia, compared to the 147 screens it opened with in the UK (which included multiplexes), Moore says it should be considered a local success.

“We would have loved to go out on 30 screens if the multiplexes had decided to book it. But there was a discussion about whether the film is art house – and the multiplexes decided it was.”

The film’s producer, Kristina Ceyton, confirmed that niche films such as The Babadook faced a number of challenges when securing Australian distribution, including a smaller market (in part due to high ticket prices), smaller advertising budgets and fierce competition from international star-driven blockbusters.

“The kind of film that we made, it’s kind of an art house film and a psychological thriller slash horror. These don’t traditionally do that well in Australia,” said Ceyton. “I think in general we’re not discontented with how it’s done here. The critical acclaim was really positive, we can’t complain about that.”

According to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA), only 26 Australian first-release films made it to Australian cinemas in 2013,compared with 183 American films.

A recent Guardian Australia feature on dwindling cinema audiences for homegrown films highlighted a general conservatism on the part of distributors and cinema programmers, who lean towards big-budget action movies.

But there is a demand for Australian films, which tend to be dramas produced on smaller budgets, and these films have the potential to fare better with digital and video-on-demand releases.

Ceyton reports that The Babadook is on the path to making a profit, with renewed local interest surrounding the film’s DVD release on 31 October and online and cable television airings to follow.

The Babadook will open in US cinemas on 28 November, following a positive premiere at the Sundance film festival in January.