hmm... a Hello Kitty live action movie? or is it a parody?

Neither. The movie tells the history of the band. There's just a Hello Kitty tie-in/giveaway (probably for those who see it during Golden Week) in the form of the three performers of the band, Yazima Beauty Salon. Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQuc7hcKyUQ

The movie is receiving a good bit of attention, and is opening during Golden Week starting the Summer season, so I thought it might also be getting attention in other parts of Asia, too.

Now I get an idea of who they are. 矢島美容室 (Yazima Beauty Salon) are fictional characters of a NHK variety show. Their back-story is: a mother of two from Las Vegas, Nevada travels with her daughters to Japan looking for her missing cosmetician husband.

What is Golden Week? (My guess is Labor Day.)

Golden Week is the longest vacation period of the year, consisting of 4 national holidays during the week, in Japan. It begins on April 29th and ends after the first week of May. Most companies are shut down for the entire week.

Several big movies get released a week or two before and during the week. This year, there's Alice in Wonderland, Nodame Cantabile Part II, Clash of the Titans, and Detective Conan being released between the 17th and 24th, and Yazima Beauty Salon and some others (have to look them up) on the 29th.

It's an extremely busy time for locals and tourists often visit the country during this period, too.

The slaughterhouse has begun. Looking at the advanced ticketing sales for Thursday at 2 theaters, here's what is showing and what will be dropped:

KG

Adds (starting on Thursday)

Clash of the Titans - 3D
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) - 3D
Beauty on Duty
Crossing Hennessy
Fire of Conscience

Holdovers

Love In A Puff - 1 showing (down from 5 on Wednesday)
Echoes of the Rainbow - 1 showing (down from 6 on Wednesday)

Dropped

Alice In Wonderland
Womb Ghosts
When In Rome
Just Another Pandora's Box

YL

Adds (starting on Thursday)

Clash of the Titans - 3D
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) - 3D
Beauty on Duty
Crossing Hennessy
Fire of Conscience

Holdovers

Love In A Puff - 1 showing (down from 5 on Wednesday)
Echoes of the Rainbow - 1 showing (down from 6 on Wednesday)

Dropped

Alice In Wonderland
Up In The Air
When In Rome
Just Another Pandora's Box

Rest of the theaters will release ticketing sales for Thursday in about 9-10 hours from now.

____________________________________________

Edit: More theaters posting Thursday schedules now.

P APM

Adds

Clash of the Titans - 3D
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - 3D
The Spy Next Door
Beauty on Duty
Fire of Conscience
Crossing Hennessy

Holdovers

Love In A Puff - 3 showings (down from 6)
Echoes of the Rainbow - 2 showings (down from 7)
Shutter Island - 2 showings (down from 6)

Dropped

Just Another Pandora's Box
When In Rome
It's Complicated
The Lovely Bones
Alice in Wonderland (English) - 3D

Cyberport

Adds

Clash of the Titans - 3D
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) - 3D
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - 3D
Fire of Conscience
Crossing Hennessy

Holdovers

Echoes of the Rainbow - 4 showings (down from 6)

Dropped

Just Another Pandora's Box
The Young Victoria
It's Complicated
The Lovely Bones
Alice in Wonderland (English) - 3D

Biggest loser here is probably Echoes. Alice is on its last legs and the rest are just fillers.

No theaters are getting Planet 51?

They changed the release date. Now it will open on Friday (April 2) instead of Thursday.

Oh, here is one more theater I thought you guys (especially Gunslinger) might like to know about and one that I find interesting. It's one of the 2 most expensive theaters here.

Palace IFC

Adds

Clash of the Titans - 3D
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - 3D
Crossing Hennessy

Holdovers

Love in a Puff - 1 showing (down from 3 on Wednesday)
The White Ribbon - 1 showing (down from 4)
The Young Victoria - 1 showing (down from 3)
A Single Man - 2 showings (up from 1)
Echoes of the Rainbow - 5 showings (down from 6)
The Hurt Locker - 4 showings (down from 5)
Alice in Wonderland 3D (English) - 2 showings (no change)
Avatar - 1 showing (no change)

Dropped

The Last Station
It's Complicated
Precious

Some notes:

The biggest shocker here is A Single Man. It somehow increases to 2 showtimes. The downside is that the movie will be shown on the smallest screen on Thursday.

Another big surprise is the snub of Fire of Conscience. I guess it helped Alice, Hurt Locker and Echoes to keep the majority of their showtimes.

Avatar is showing great legs. The theater owner must have been impressed with Tuesday's near sellout show. There's still a chance that Avatar will be dropped Friday if it does not pick up in Wednesday/Thursday advanced sales. So far, it has been disappointing with only 2 tickets purchased for Wednesday's show and none for Thursday's.

______________________________________________________

Other notes

Theater owners are showing very little confidence in Fire of Conscience. Most of the theaters are showing it on their smallest screen.

Clash of the Titans will win the weekend. Although How To Train Your Dragon has 2 versions, it has either limited showings in the evenings or none at all.

The Spy Next Door looks DOA.

Avatar and Alice are being dropped from the 4D cinema. In its place, How To Train Your Dragon will be shown in the morning/afternoon while Clash will take over during the evening and night.

Weekend of March 25-28, 2010:

1 2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Re-issue) Echoes of the Rainbow Newport $395,669 -25.1% 39 -4 $10,145 $1,948,745 3
2 1 Alice in Wonderland (2010) Disney $312,881 -48.3% 41 -12 $7,631 $5,183,670 4
3 5 Avatar Fox $153,812 -6.9% 6 -1 $25,635 $22,162,341 15
4 N Chi ming yu chun giu (Love in a Puff) Gala $130,651 - 26 - $5,025 $130,651 1
5 4 Shutter Island Intercontinental $127,012 -41.4% 16 -1 $7,938 $757,186 3
6 N When in Rome Disney $111,246 - 22 - $5,057 $111,246 1
7 3 Yuet gwong bo hup (Just Another Pandora's Box) Lark $95,804 -61.5% 30 -2 $3,193 $428,527 2
8 6 The Hurt Locker Golden Scene $82,157 -41.0% 8 +1 $10,270 $519,868 3
9 8 Ngok Toi (Womb Ghosts) Newport $54,873 -43.9% 12 -3 $4,573 $211,004 2
10 7 The Lovely Bones Intercontinental $43,151 -61.0% 15 - $2,877 $189,787 2
11 9 It's Complicated EDKO $33,836 -56.3% 12 -7 $2,820 $343,474 3
12 N The Fantastic Mr. Fox Fox $24,133 - 10 - $2,413 $24,133 1
14 10 Nodame Kantâbire: Saishuu-gakushou - Zenpen Panasia $23,618 -56.9% 11 -10 $2,147 $551,129 4
15 N Cheuuat gaawn chim (The Meat Grinder) Intercontinental $9,785 - 10 - $979 $9,785 1
16 N The White Ribbon n/a $9,400 - 2 - $4,700 $9,400 1
17 11 A Single Man Cable $6,354 -70.9% 3 -2 $2,118 $89,481 3
18 12 Up in the Air Intercontinental $3,592 -80.2% 6 -10 $599 $710,661 5
19 N Wonangsori (Old Partner) n/a $3,332 - 1 - $3,332 $3,332 1
20 13 The Last Station EDKO $2,448 -77.7% 2 - $1,224 $17,590 2
21 15 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire EDKO $2,267 -70.8% 2 -3 $1,134 $150,809 5
22 N Good Panasia $2,220 - 1 - $2,220 $2,220 1
23 18 Crazy Heart Fox $1,136 -57.4% 2 -1 $568 $39,326 4
24 17 Nine Intercontinental $1,034 -74.0% 2 -2 $517 $362,286 5
25 20 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Fox $950 -13.6% 1 - $950 $2,010,674 7
26 14 The Blind Side WB $927 -88.3% 1 -3 $927 $92,795 5
27 16 72 ga cho hak (72 Tenants of Prosperity) Intercontinental $775 -85.8% 1 -5 $775 $4,436,180 7
28 21 Valentine's Day WB $483 -48.3% 1 - $483 $1,180,734 7
29 22 The Princess and the Frog Disney $274 -66.0% 1 - $274 $548,171 7

Very good by Echoes. It might not be able to stay ahead of Alice next week in gross because it will lose screens due to the 9 new films coming out.

Another weak hold by Alice. As its grosses get smaller and smaller, its drops will be inflated due to IMAX. Even in IMAX though, it is playing like a typical IMAX release.

Avatar once again had a stunning hold thanks to IMAX. Demand is wearing off as its drops have gotten slightly bigger each week. Also, this will be its last great hold as next week 2 of its IMAX showings will be dropped in favor of How To Train Your Dragon.

Love In A Puff was a non-factor as it opened with a soft $5,000+ PSA. I don't see how this will crawl past $500,000 US.

Shutter Island had another strong hold considering the favorable showtime loss. It is still doing quite well in most areas. It should be a keeper for a few more weeks with the holidays coming up. By the way, I watched this movie on Saturday and this movie doesn't deserve the acclaim that it does.

When In Rome offered little competition as most were still checking out Echoes this week.

Just Another Pandora's Box had the worst drop out of any holdover with multiple screens left. Negative word of mouth (only a 3/5 rating on UA), and attention on Echoes really boosted the fall.

The Hurt Locker is starting to have bigger drops. Again, most of the attention was on Echoes and with the Oscars long gone, attendance has dropped quite significantly.

Womb Ghosts had a nice drop considering the type of movie it is. Unless if those numbers are inflated...

The Lovely Bones didn't appeal to anyone as it had the second-worst drop out of the main holdovers. I just think the storyline of the kid dying then trying to guide the family/find the killer just clashed with the culture here. It didn't help that the trailer was ineffective in getting across what it really was. Was it a thriller? A mystery? Who knows.

It's Complicated got hammered due to competition from When In Rome opening.

Fantastic Mr. Fox opened with a pathetic number. Failing to excite families, this really didn't play well even in the traditional theaters that seem to thrive on animated movies.

Nodame Cantabile: Part 1 produced an ok hold with the screen loss and with the type of movie it is. Good run for it.

It probably would have been more appropriate if The Meat Grinder opened near Halloween. I don't think opening near Easter is such a good idea. That being said, audiences pretty much didn't care for it as it failed to reach a $1,000 PSA.

The White Ribbon opened with a solid $9,400. Considering that it's a foreign language film and that a very small portion of the moviegoers here would even attempt to watch it, this is a fairly nice opening.

Precious is having an interesting run here. At 1 of the 2 most expensive theaters, there are brochures on this movie near the ticket office (no other movie has one) and it is still surviving with showtimes even with little demand for it. The admissions don't support the additional showtimes in this case.

It's not too bad for a film with a NC-17 rating.



I'm interested to know how the story clashes with Hong Kong's (or Chinese) culture. Some reviews I've read say the film's perspective, on the contrary, is very Oriental and Buddhist.

This weekend looks... massive!

Openers:

Clash of the Titans - Wide
How to Train Your Dragon (English and Cantonese versions) - Wide
Fire of Conscience - Wide
Beauty on Duty - Wide
Crossing Hennessy - Wide
The Spy Next Door - Semi-Wide
Planet 51 (Friday) - Semi-Wide
Monga - Limited

I don't know. If this were rated PG, I don't think it would have gotten much more. It says that it was rated III due to the excessive amount of Cantonese foul language in the movie, not smoking or nudity or graphic scenes.



The idea that someone dead helping her family find the killer is against the culture that Hong Kong has which is fast paced, self-serving and cutthroat. It does display some Buddhist elements, but there's no direct connection there for the Buddhist believers to hold on to. The girl might have been reincarnated in another body, but is it really a reincarnation if she's only there for a short time? I thought Buddhists believe that reincarnation is in another person/being for a period of time. I am not familiar with the Buddhist culture, however.

3/31/2010

After 102 days in release, Avatar's total stands at HK $172,081,704, or US$ 22,204,091 (as of Sunday, March 28, 2010).

Given the average ticket price is HK$ 120 (or US$ 15.5), Avatar has attracted 1,434,000 viewings. Assuming there are no repeat viewings, 1,434,000 out of 7,026,400 people in Hong Kong (or about one-fifth of the population) have seen Avatar during its theatrical release.

*Edited to reflect the correct date.

Thursday Admissions (as of 9:15 pm HKT)

1. (NEW) Clash of the Titans (3D) 27,534
2. (NEW) Beauty on Duty 5,730
3. (NEW) How to Train Your Dragon (3D Cantonese) 4,968
4. Echoes of the Rainbow 4,484
5. (NEW) Crossing Hennessy 4,062

Is Thursday a school holiday? If so, the number is very disappointing for Dragon.

Thursday admissions (April 1)

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 29,177
2. Beauty On Duty - 6,174
3. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 4,949
4. Echoes of the Rainbow - 4,499 (-32.5%)
5. Crossing Hennessy - 4,260

WOW. Clash bests Alice's opening day admissions. (Yes, I know Clash won due to the holiday effect.) Not bad for Beauty On Duty. On the surface, that might look like a terrible number for Dragon but I think with the English version combined, it should soar well past Beauty for #2. Amazing drop for Echoes considering the competition combined with the screen loss. Crossing Hennessy's number is deflated due to last week's special screenings. I think it will win over Beauty for the weekend in admissions/gross.

Friday admissions (April 2) so far

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 15,624
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 4,514
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,930 (+10.8%)
4. Crossing Hennessy - 2,966
5. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English) - 2,555 (-7.3%)

Very good for Clash. Nice for Dragon. Amazing for Echoes. Ok for Crossing Hennessy. Bad for Alice.

By the way, Tuesday is a holiday so Fri-Mon will essentially act like 4 Saturday's in a row. It should lead to hefty weekend increases for most movies.

Dragon decreases from my previous update?

About 80% of Dragon's showings are in Cantonese version. So the projected admission for Dragon will be about 6200 from the 80% of the theaters reporting. The two films should be closer in terms of gross as Dragon has a higher price premium from IMAX 3D. Assuming the average ticket is $87 for Titans and $100 for Dragon, the Thursday gross for Titans is HK$3.18 mil and that for Dragon is HK$775,000.
*Projections are made based on admission figures representing 80% of the theaters.

Bluebomb, do you know if Thursday is a school holiday in Hong Kong?

That's weird. Maybe they were giving some admissions to their English version? It is April Fool's after all.

Dragon's IMAX tickets only accounts for what? 10%-20% of its admission total? Just looking at the Broadway theatre chain, most are charging more for a ticket to see Titans than Dragon by $5-$10 HK. The rest of the theatres are charging the same price for both. I would think that the premium IMAX price is offset by the theaters that are charging more to see Titans than Dragon.

I don't know. I saw lots of kids just walking around in the afternoon but I don't think there was a school holiday yesterday.

So ticket price varies by movies in Hong Kong, right?

Friday ticket sales (as of 11:30 am HKT)

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 17,909
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 5,439
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 4,770
4. Crossing Hennessy - 3,450
5. How to Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 2,774

The number for Dragon's English version is much closer to that for the Cantonese version than I thought it would be.

The Titans-to-Dragon ratio now narrows to 2.2:1.

Yes, there is no set criteria as to how theatre owners charge certain movies, but there is a general guideline I posted earlier using the most expensive theater as the basis. If you subtract $30 almost everywhere else and an extra $10 in places like New Territories, you will generally get the prices right, give or take $5-$10. (Note, this only applies to the highest prices, not the morning shows. No theater would sell tickets for only $5 HK in the morning.)



Also, I'm not surprised Dragon is doing well with the English version. Animated movies in English has always done FAR better in sales than in Cantonese.

Friday admissions (April 2)

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 33,146
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 8,238
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 7,076 (-35.9%)
4. Crossing Hennessy - 6,807
5. Beauty On Duty - 6,393



Saturday admissions (so far) - April 3

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 12,788
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 3,743
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,377 (-54.0%)
4. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 2,229 (-66.1%)
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 2,183

Clash watch: 15,624 (Early Friday) -> 12,788 (Early Saturday) = -2836 in pre-sales
Dragon watch: 4,514 -> 3,743 = -771 in pre-sales

Not good for Echoes. Alarming for Alice. Looks like those IMAX shows are not helping much at all. The English version of Dragon is really flying while the Cantonese one seems to be lagging a bit. Clash is heading for another 25,000+ admissions today.

In other news, Alice in Wonderland run in IMAX has been extended to April 18.

The drops for Echoes and Alcie on Saturday so far could be due to that there were fewer midnight showings for them than there were last week.

There were over 300 showings for Titans but fewer than 200 for Dragon. So the # of admissions per showings are closer between the two.

Monday's 3D presales watch (Palace IFC) - @ 4 PM on Saturday:

Avatar - 1 showing (39 tickets sold - total)
Alice in Wonderland - 4 showings (18 total)
Clash of the Titans - 8 showings (55)
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - 6 showings (50)

This is only for one theater but that is a fantastic number for Avatar. On the flipside, yikes for Alice. Ok for Clash and solid for Dragon.

That number is especially disappointing for Alice considering that it went from 2 showings on Thursday to 4 on Monday.

Midnight showings? Why would there be midnight showings last weekend if there was no holiday?

Saturday admissions (April 3)

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 26,615
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 7,313
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 7,131 (-63.6%)
4. Beauty On Duty - 5,694
5. Crossing Hennessy - 5,054

I think I know the reason why Echoes and Alice fell so hard. In addition to losing some theaters, demand is now spread out over 6 days (Thurs. night -> Tues. night) instead of the usual 3. That's why the drops are more severe and alarming than normal. Also, this was a regular Saturday with some parents still working half a day.



Sunday admissions (so far) - April 4

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 11,244
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 4,194
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,525 (-59.4%)
4. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 2,123 (-69.5%)
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 2,066

Presales (Friday -> Saturday)

Clash watch: 12,788 -> 11,244
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) watch: 3,743 -> 4,194
" (English): 2,183 -> 2,066

Final number - admissions (Thursday -> Saturday)

Clash watch: 29,177 -> 33,146 -> 26,615 = 88,938 admissions so far
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) watch: 4,949 -> 8,238 -> 20,500 admissions so far

Ok, time to throw this weekend's drops out the window. Next weekend's too. Looks like this weekend's drops will be heavily deflated and next weekend's drops will be the opposite.

Here are the movies that are coming out the rest of the month...

April 8

Date Night
The Messenger
Villon's Wife
Amphetamine

April 15

Kick-Ass
Season of the Witch
Monga (pushed back)
Future X-Cops
White Night
Micmacs (French)
Brothers
A Serious Man

April 22

The Ghost Writer
Agora
Amalfi
Legion

April 29

Iron Man 2
Ip Man 2

Obviously the big weekend will be April 29. Both of the originals had excellent word of mouth and went on to gross over $2.8 mill US. Ip Man won the overall total by a little over $450,000 US but Iron Man had the edge opening weekend as it doubled Ip Man's gross. Forget about Clash vs. Dragon. The real battle starts here. Can both films survive without eating into each other's gross? We'll see.

However, the big story could turn out to be the weekend of April 15. Kick-Ass is the favourite and the biggest contender but Future X-Cops could pose a challenge. The one thing that Future X-Cops has is starpower. While some may not have forgiven him for lying about being married, Andy Lau has starred in numerous amounts of HK films. The thing that will not work in Cops favour, however, is that Andy Lau only agreed to join after the script was re-written the 19th time. Still, the $20 mill price tag makes it not only one of the most expensive HK productions but signifies that this movie is badass and all about the action.

Thanks for the updates, Bluebomb.

Titans:Dragon admissions ratio keeps dropping. On Saturday, it dropped to 26615:10,970 = 2.5:1 from 2.7:1 (Friday) and 4.5:1 (Thursday).

Tuesday's 3D presales watch (Palace IFC) - @ 3:00 PM on Saturday:

Avatar - 1 showing (43 tickets sold - total)
Alice in Wonderland - 5 showings (24 total), 1 showing with zero tickets sold
Clash of the Titans - 7 showings (23), 5 showings with zero tickets sold
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - 5 showings (32), 1 showing with zero tickets sold

I find this fascinating. Not only is Avatar selling out faster than yesterday, Clash's ticket sales are really down. I guess people might want to see Avatar one last time before the holidays are over and Clash burnt off so much demand in the first five days that only a few left are buying tickets. Negative word of mouth for Clash at hand here? Maybe.

Alice is doing slightly better than yesterday although that number is nothing to be proud of. Still, it is ahead of Clash in presales. Dragon is showing good signs of legs.

These numbers will not be the final numbers but they are interesting to see which films has great demand on the first day of selling. Usually, the day of the showing is the busiest as a showing with less than half of the seats sold can be filled to a near sellout by the time the movie starts.

It'll be interesting to see next week's drops. The general outlook looks like Dragon will hold up quite well and Clash will implode. Alice is already down a lot this week so next week doesn't look well either.

Edit: 4 PM

Avatar - (47 tickets sold - total) (+20.5% from yesterday)
Alice in Wonderland - (26 total) (+44.4%)
Clash of the Titans - (30) (-45.4%)
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - (46) (-8.0%)



Sunday April 4 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 22,352
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 7,760
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 6,948 (-62.1%)
4. Beauty On Duty - 5,072
5. Crossing Hennessy - 4,857

Very good sign for Dragon...the only film in the top 5 to increase from Saturday admissions.

Final number - admissions (Thursday -> Sunday)

Clash watch: 29,177 -> 33,146 -> 26,615 -> 22,352 = 111,290 admissions so far
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) watch: 4,949 -> 8,238 -> 7,313 -> 7,760 = 28,260 admissions so far

Wow for Clash and this bodes well for Dragon.