So weekdays are very week but weekends seem to be fine for Battleship, I know it is a weekend movie still weekdays are really poor IMO.

It made $340,000 the past Monday-Wednesday. That's an average of $113,333 per day. Yeah, not great but it's pretty normal for longer pics to make a lot more money on the weekend. People treat the weekend like a holiday making it much more accessible for them to watch an over 2 hour long movie.

The Hunger Games is also seeing this same treatment. This week, its Saturday admissions more than doubled Friday's.

	Sunday adm.				April 22
Rank	Title	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Battleship	40,916	7,673	-81.2%	-30.0%
2	Titanic 3D	9,085	5,521	-39.2%	-16.3%
3	Love in the Buff	8,145	5,281	-35.2%	-28.8%
4	A Simple Life	--	3,877	--	--
5	407 Dark Flight 3D	--	3,443	--	-31.7%

	Weekend adm.			Apr 19-22
Rank	Title	LW	TW	% chg
1	Battleship	136,084	26,630	-80.4%
2	Love in the Buff	33,983	20,539	-39.6%
3	Titanic 3D	28,919	19,082	-34.0%
4	407 Dark Flight 3D	--	12,472	--

	Weekend Estimates			April 19
Rank	Title	TW (est.)	% chg	Total (est.)
1	Battleship	$560,000	-54.5%	$2,130,000
2	407 Dark Flight	$170,000		$170,000
3	Titanic 3D	$160,000	-48.1%	$1,455,000
4	Love in the Buff	$145,000	-40.9%	$3,525,000
5	A Simple Life	$80,000	+117.8%	$3,525,000

Battleship held on for dear life this week and it performed quite well. The estimate could be way off by about $100,000 but it will fend off the other releases and stand tall another week. 407 Dark Flight had a nice debut. Its opening is ahead of Paranormal Activity 2, Saw 1 and 4, Sleepwalker and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Its 4-day total is running a little behind Laddaland but it's a nice continuation of the Thai horror scene pulling in small but good numbers here. After a strong hold last weekend, Titanic scales back a bit into the fold. Its 48% slip is not bad by any means but the ship looks to have sailed and it should suffer a big decline next weekend. Love in the Buff remained in the mix, down 41% to fly past 3.5m. This might also overtake A Simple Life for the biggest local film of the year. Boosted by major awards sweep at the HK Film Awards, A Simple Life rose more than 100% to enter the top 5. Its strong Sunday kicked off The Hunger Games for the 5th spot and like Buff, it passed 3.5m this weekend.

Prediction for The Avengers
2.5m OW (Opening weekend)
5.7m total (2.28 multiplier)

This OW is based on if most theaters show 2D. The Tuesday holiday should downsize its opening weekend a bit.

Actual:

Battleship total - $2,118,020

So about $540,000-$550,000 for its 2nd weekend.

3. Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy 3D



Released: April 14
OW - $1,679,759
Total - $5,290,771 (3.15 multiplier)

No one was quite sure what to make of Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy when it opened its doors on April 14 but it shocked viewers and box office analysts both. Early pre-selling two weeks ahead of its release might have been a signal that it was going to be a hot selling movie but analysts were apprehensive about what a porn movie in 3D could do at the box office. It received widespread media attention from both local and foreign media publications alike ahead of its release as it was billed as the 'first 3D porn film in the world'. It utilized the media attention and grabbed locals by piquing their curiosity of a porn film being shot in 3D. Tour guides from China even used the film as the main selling point to get people to come over since it did not receive a release in China. The special promotions didn't stop there though. Certain theaters even ran 'Ladies only" special screenings for those women who wanted to see the film but didn't want to see men jerking off or didn't feel safe being around men in general. The rejection from IMAX wasn't enough to stop Sex & Zen from going over the top in its opening weekend with an out-of-left field opening.

Sex & Zen blew past all expectations, opening to numerous sold out shows at night and it roped in an enormous $1.679m from its first 4 days. That opening is the highest OW for any category III-rated movie ever and it outperformed Lust, Caution by more than $250,000. Going by a day-by-day basis, Thursday delivered strong results with 41,967 admissions reported from 80% of theaters. The flurry of media coverage continued into its opening weekend as many media outlets ran the story of it beating Avatar's opening day after Thursday actuals came in. With $360,000 made on its opening day, it more than doubled Lust, Caution's opening Thursday. Friday, even with more sellouts, inched a mere 3% possibly indicating that it was frontloaded with many wanting to see this opening day. It pushed back on Saturday, moving 63,151 admissions for its biggest admissions day of its run. Without the late night to boost ticket sales, it cracked on Sunday and went down 23%. Total number of admissions for Sex & Zen's opening weekend tallied to 197,247, a mere orgasm away from 200,000. With its astonishing opening weekend, many seemed convinced this was going to do well over the holidays even with the amount of competition.

Unfortunately, for the porno, it faced a whopping 11 new releases Easter weekend. 7 of them even managed to reach the top 10. Still, none of the openers really provided a challenge for Sex & Zen as it easily repeated on top Easter weekend. While admissions slacked off its 2nd weekend (-56.4%), it only suffered a 48% decline in gross. Its total squirted up to 3.272m after 11 days, beating every film with that gross except for the other 9 films in the top 10 and becoming Newport's biggest hit of the year after only 2 weeks. 14 days into its run and it already zoomed up to 3.5m, positioning itself as the #1 film of the year at that time by taking out I Love Hong Kong.

Its 3rd weekend saw 2 formidable action films go head-to-head with each other. Thor and The Lost Bladesman took over for Sex & Zen and knocked it down to 3rd but it finished with a solid 53% hold, the 2nd best drop for a wide release that weekend. Its admissions saw better holds as the weekend went along as it went from a steep 68% fold on Thursday to easing 24% on Sunday. That would bring its total up to 3.987m after 2 1/2 weeks and it passed 4m on Monday.

The release of Fast Five in Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy's 4th weekend didn't deter it at all. It slithered with a 50% drop, the best of the top 20 and of any film showing on more than 2 screens that weekend. Its 4th weekend came in just above $200,000 and its total crept up to 4.4m. After seeing Sex & Zen breaking records and catching the eye of the media, there was only one question left for it to resolve. Would it make 5m?

Its weekend hold in its 5th weekend would give credence to that notion as it enjoyed the best hold for any semi-wide or wide release, sliding down 25%. Its total was up to a stunning 4.7m but it faced a huge obstacle the next weekend when every theater would make room for the 4th installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 did little to stop it. Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy didn't even flinch and it locked up another $93,000 in its 6th weekend and its total now stood at 4.862m, certain to pass 5m in a matter of weeks. It also spent its 6th weekend in the top 5.

After surviving Pirates 4, it ran away with the best drop of any holdover the next weekend. 7th weekend saw it stumble 25%, more than 10% better than the nearest holdover.

2 months into its run and it accomplished what many was thinking was never going to materialize. It snagged 5m and it did it with style, jumping back into the top 5 and diving only 29% even with 2 fairly big openers in X-Men: First Class and The Hangover 2. It once again enjoyed the best drop of any holdover for the 2nd weekend in a row.

There was a dilemma in its 9th weekend as an adapted stage play hoping to steal Sex & Zen's audience made its way into theaters. Although the adaptation was a comedy instead of an erotic film, it had the name 'Sex' in the title and it frequently referenced jokes about erections and other bodily functions. Microsex Office got its playdate along with Super 8 but they were no match for Sex & Zen's staying power. Sex & Zen got slashed 34% and its total funneled up to 5.111m.

Its 10th weekend saw it lose another 3 screens and push down another 2 spots but it did the unthinkable and increased 19%. It got no holiday boost and it held on for another week inside the top 10.

Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy would drop out of the top 10 on its 11th weekend with Beginning of the Great Revival and Treasure Inn coming out but it came so close with it showing on just 4 theaters. It limped past 5.2m after 11 weeks.

Transformers was supposed to decimate the remaining screens for Sex & Zen but it never happened. Instead, the erotic film countered with a 41% slide, one of only 2 films that escaped with a drop of less than 50%. It also marked its return into the top 10 where it placed #9.

It clung onto another weekend in the top 10, even when half of its business vanished from the weekend before. Its 13th weekend saw it make only $7,741 but it climbed another spots to #7, meaning it spent 3 full months inside the top 10, an incredible achievement.

Sex & Zen continued its hot streak on its 14 weekend of release. The farewell party for Harry Potter didn't spoil Sex & Zen moviegoers and it notched $6,626 from 1 theater while rising to #6 from only a 14% decline.

Good declines carried on through Kung Fu Panda 2's release as it lost 22% of its business to pull its total up to 5.269m. This would mark its final week in the top 10.

Wu Xia put an end to Sex & Zen's extreme run in the top 10 as it along with 4 other openers pushed Sex & Zen well outside the top 10. Sex & Zen didn't suffer any drastic fallout though. It shook off only 43% for another weekend drop below 50%.

Its 17th and final weekend saw it slow down only 30% and it was a fitting end to such a bizarre and amazing run.

Let's run down the numbers and facts here. Sex & Zen was #1 for 2 weeks and beat out every other film at the time in only 2 weeks. It was a mainstay in the top 5 and top 10, amassing 7 and 14 weeks respectively. It was ranked inside the top 10 for 14/17 weeks. Even though it was a male driven film, it survived well on the weeks where male oriented movies came out. Super 8, Transformers, Hangover 2, X-Men: First Class, Thor, The Lost Bladesman, Wu Xia, Harry Potter 7-2 all couldn't stop Sex & Zen from achieving one of the best runs ever. It also spent the last 13 weeks of its run dropping 50% or below, one of the most peculiar things to ever happen to a film. Typically, even films with great WOM would see larger and larger drops as it box office declines but Sex & Zen defied that trend. It tied Toy Story 3 for number of weeks in release with 17 and it finished the year ahead of some big names like Kung Fu Panda 2, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, X-Men: First Class and Black Swan. It kept on accumulating exceptional weekend holds in the face of extreme competition and that carried it to one of the biggest totals ever for a category III film. It obliterated everyone's expectations and almost defiantly, slowly crept its way to being one of the biggest films of 2011.

Highlights

Opening weekend - $1.679 million, highest opening ever for III rated movie
2nd weekend - 48% drop with 11 new openers to contend with
3rd weekend - 53% drop with release of Thor and The Lost Bladesman
4th weekend - ...
5th weekend - 25% drop, passed 4.7m
6th weekend - 39% drop with release of Pirates 4
7th weekend - 25% drop
8th weekend - 29% drop with X-Men: First Class and Hangover 2 openers, passed 5m
9th weekend - ...
10th weekend - 19% increase
11th weekend - passed 5.2m
12th weekend - 41% drop in face of Transformers 3
13th weekend - ...
14th weekend - 14% drop with finale of Harry Potter opening
15th weekend - 22% drop with Kung Fu Panda 2 opening
16th weekend - [ties Inception for number of weeks in release]
17th weekend - final weekend, 30% drop, [ties Toy Story 3 for number of weeks in release]

5th-17th weekend - dropped 50% or below

The Avengers in 2D is only being shown in a handful of theaters. That's less than what Transformers 3 and Harry Potter 7-2 got.

The Avengers will debut somewhere in the 2.4-3.5m range.

Thursday schedules

Pacific Place
New	Holdovers	Leaving
The Avengers 3D - 18 showings	One for the Money - 2 showings (▼ 4)	Machine Gun Preacher
	Battleship - 5 showings (▼ 6)	Man on a Ledge
	Shame - 1 showing (▼ 3)	Titanic 3D
	The Lorax (3D Eng.) - 1 showing (▼ 2)	The Hunger Games
	Man on a Ledge - 4 showings (▼ 6)
	Mirror Mirror (Eng.) - 1 showing (▼ 4)

Olympian City
New	Holdovers	Leaving
The Avengers 2D - 4 showings	One for the Money - 1 showing (▼ 4)	Lives in Flames
The Avengers 3D - 18 showings	Battleship - 3 showings (▼ 6)	Machine Gun Preacher
	Sunny - 2 showings (▼ 3)	Mirror Mirror (Eng.)
	The Hunger Games - 1 showing (▼ 2)	Titanic 3D
	A Simple Life - 1 showing (▼ 2)	Love in the Buff
		Nightfall

Palace APM
New	Holdovers	Leaving
The Avengers 2D - 3 showings	Battleship - 2 showings (▼ 8)	407 Dark Flight 3D
The Avengers 3D - 24 showings	Sunny - 1 showing (▼ 2)	Lives in Flames
	Titanic 3D - 1 showing (▼ 3)	Machine Gun Preacher
	Love in the Buff - 1 showing (▼ 5)	Mirror Mirror (Eng.)
		The Soul of Bread
		Nightfall

Festival Walk
New	Holdovers	Leaving
The Avengers 3D - 20 showings	A Dangerous Method - 2 showings (▼ 5)	One for the Money
	Machine Gun Preacher - 1 showing (▼ 5)	Man on a Ledge
	Battleship - 5 showings (▼ 6)	Mirror Mirror (Eng.)
	Sunny - 2 showings (-)
	Titanic 3D - 1 showing (▼ 3)
	Love in the Buff - 1 showing (▼ 5)
	The Hunger Games - 1 showing (▼ 5)
	A Simple Life - 1 showing (▼ 2)

Avengers killed most of the holdovers this week. Battleship is the consensus survivor. Love in the Buff and Titanic are next in line but around half of the theaters have cut them from their schedules. Nightfall, Mirror Mirror, Machine Gun Preacher, One for the Money have been axed from most of the theaters. 407 Dark Flight is still showing in about half of the theaters that played it last weekend. A Simple Life is still showing in most places.

Opening day for The Avengers - Palace APM

Palace APM
	The Avengers 3D					The Avengers 2D
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Apr. 26	11:00 AM	26	114	22.8%	Apr. 26	11:30 AM	37	112	33.0%
	11:20 AM	144	286	50.3%		2:10 PM	18	112	16.1%
	12:00 PM	22	167	13.2%		4:45 PM	13	112	11.6%
	1:35 PM	16	114	14.0%
	2:00 PM	53	286	18.5%
	2:35 PM	31	167	18.6%
	3:20 PM	18	98	18.4%
	4:10 PM	18	114	15.8%
	4:35 PM	91	286	31.8%
	5:10 PM	48	167	28.7%
	5:55 PM	18	98	18.4%
	6:45 PM	23	114	20.2%
	7:10 PM	176	286	61.5%
	7:20 PM	33	112	29.5%
	7:45 PM	112	167	67.1%
	8:35 PM	38	98	38.8%
	9:20 PM	31	114	27.2%
	9:45 PM	174	286	60.8%
	9:55 PM	20	112	17.9%
	10:20 PM	63	167	37.7%
	11:15 PM	22	98	22.4%
	11:55 PM	16	114	14.0%
	12:25 AM	58	286	20.3%
	12:55 AM	22	167	13.2%
Total		1273	4018	31.7%	Total		68	336	20.2%

Incredible % for The Avengers on opening day. I wouldn't put 3m past it at this point. It looks like it could hit 50,000-60,000 admissions opening day.

April 26 Weekend Predictions

1. The Avengers - $2,600,000
2. Battleship - $150,000 (-73%)
3. Titanic 3D - $85,000 (-58%)
4. 407 Dark Flight - $55,000 (-71%)
5. Love in the Buff - $45,000 (-67%)

The Avengers will double the highest OW of the year. Getting only a handful of 2D screens diminishes the maximum potential gross for the Avengers but 3D will sell like gangbusters. Pre-sales have been excellent so far with IMAX almost selling out and regular theaters having sold out shows so far away.

Battleship will only slide down 1 spot thanks to it being the big winner last weekend. The Avengers will hit it hard but I could see it getting some spillover effect from full shows of The Avengers. Titanic should place 3rd with extreme 3D prices. It's getting cut in more than half of its theaters including IMAX but pre-sales have looked decent so it'll avoid a horrendous drop. 407 Dark Flight will drop heavily because it's a horror film, a foreign language film and The Avengers will monopolize the screens. Dropping out of the top 5 is not of the question either. Love in the Buff has had a very good run so far but it is also getting tossed out in half of the theaters currently showing it. After a bad holiday week, it stabilized last weekend but it'll get pulverized by The Avengers.

A Simple Life is an interesting choice. After last weekend's bump, it should see a fairly big drop with demand being met. The Avengers taking almost all the screens is a negative effect but theaters have managed to slot A Simple Life either in the morning or afternoon. Surprisingly, it retained most of its theaters this week so it could have the best drop of the top 10 this week and may even spend an extra weekend in the top 5.

Thomas & Friends: Day of the Diesels is getting a limited-semi wide release. It's also a possibility for a top 5 finish but the low theater count concerns me. The attention for The Avengers is also non-stop and I'm not sure if Thomas & Friends will engage kids enough to get them to beg their parents and take them to see it. $50,000 for the weekend is achievable but it's getting a really small release, something I think will torpedo its chances of making the top 5.

Sunny increased last weekend and is a dark horse candidate to make the top 5. It is being kept in almost all of the locations from last weekend but most theaters have taken away its 7 PM showtime from last week and given it to The Avengers. I could see a small 20-30% decrease this weekend if business continues to hold up.

The Hunger Games is winding down now. I only expect about $20,000-$25,000 for the weekend.

Some comparisons using Avengers' 3D opening day pre-sales

+44% from Iron Man 2's opening day pre-sales.
+125.5% from Thor's opening day
+43.8% from X-Men: First Class' opening day
+207.1% from Green Lantern's opening day
+77.9% from Captain America's opening day

In my opinion, The Avengers will target about 75,000 admissions today. 80,000 may happen if there are strong walk-ins.

At 6 PM, The Avengers is currently sitting with 60,000 admissions in 3D. Add in the 5,000 admissions from Wednesday midnights and it is sitting at 65,000 admissions right now. With 6 hours to go, The Avengers will likely beat my 75,000 admissions prediction. I think it has a shot of beating Transformers Tuesday + Wednesday admissions. Harry Potter's OD admissions broke 100,000 but I don't think The Avengers will get there. One thing that The Avengers has over Harry Potter is higher ticket prices. It's not as expensive as Transformers 3 but slightly more than Harry Potter 7-2.

________________________________________________
2 weeks away from release, pre-selling for Dark Shadows has taken place at most theaters. 1m+ OW expected? This kind of baffles me to be honest. The Johnny Depp/Tim Burton collaboration isn't a driving force in HK but to get pre-selling at many locations this early screams very big hit. This might put a dent in The Avengers' legs. We will see.

	Thursday adm.			April 26
Rank	Title	LW	TW	% chg
1	The Avengers 3D	--	65,698	--
2	The Avengers 2D	--	2,043	--
3	Battleship	3,344	1,136	-66.0%
4	407 Dark Flight 3D	1,847	617	-66.6%
5	A Dangerous Method	--	574	--

Avengers slowed down a lot at night but it was still a monstrous opening day. If you add on the 5,000 from midnights, The Avengers 3D began with more than 70,000 admissions on Thursday. Avengers comes in a little behind Transformers 3's opening day admissions and pretty far away from Harry Potter 7-2's opening day admissions.

3D share - 96.98%
2D share - 3.02%

								Apr. 19 WKD
Rank	Film Title	Distributor	Weekend BO	Weeks	Engmnts	Eng. average	% change	B.O. Cume
1	Battleship	Universal Int'l	$553,657	2	41	$13,504	-55%	$2,122,745
2	Titanic	Fox Int'l	$199,676	3	30	$6,656	-35%	$1,493,464
3	Dark Flight	Panasia Films	$193,754	1	20	$9,688		$193,754
4	Love In The Buff	Gala Films	$136,533	4	37	$3,690	-44%	$3,514,481
5	Hunger Games, The	UA Films/Emperor	$78,679	5	22	$3,576	-36%	$2,541,726
6	Mirror Mirror	Panasia Films	$75,835	3	30	$2,528	-61%	$1,102,064
7	Simple Life, A	UA Films/DW	$71,958	7	21	$3,427	+97%	$3,516,260
8	Machine Gun Preacher	Intercontinental	$70,132	1	18	$3,896		$70,132
9	Sunny (Director's Cut)	Panasia Films	$51,324	11	12	$4,277	+8%	$121,041
10	Dangerous Method, A	Golden Scene	$49,121	1	8	$6,140		$49,121

Battleship held up well. The drop is great considering that Wednesday previews were rolled into Battleship's opening weekend gross.

Good battle between Titanic and 407 Dark Flight. Titanic's 3D prices came out on top of 407 Dark Flight. Love in the Buff bounced back after a heavy drop 2 weeks ago. Good hold for The Hunger Games. Overall, it has done quite well since its slower start. Mirror Mirror continues to sag. Impressive increase for A Simple Life. It may still come out on top of Love in the Buff. Weak for Machine Gun Preacher. Excellent for Sunny. OK for A Dangerous Method.

		Thursday Actuals						April 26
LW	TW	Title	Last Thu. (USD)	Thursday (USD)	% chg	Screens	Days	Total
--	1	The Avengers	--	$732,500	--	142	1	$789,470
1	2	Battleship	$79,229	$16,787	-78.8%	38	15	$2,290,322
2	3	407 Dark Flight 3D	$31,871	$8,664	-72.8%	19	8	$270,660
3	4	Titanic 3D	$27,100	$6,197	-77.1%	11	23	$1,566,103
4	5	Love in the Buff	$21,320	$5,000	-76.5%	22	29	$3,558,416
N/A	6	Sunny	N/A	$4,706	N/A	11	15	$149,507
7	7	The Hunger Games	$10,414	$4,042	-61.2%	10	36	$2,563,771
6	8	A Simple Life	$11,231	$3,966	-64.7%	20	49	$3,549,072
9	9	A Dangerous Method	$8,193	$3,949	-51.8%	8	8	$74,753
8	10	Mirror Mirror	$8,547	$2,424	-71.6%	9	22	$1,127,312

Nightfall	$2,284,958
The Lorax	$642,533
Man on a Ledge	$291,906

Very impressive for The Avengers even though it misses out on the non-holiday record. It'll make 3.6-4m for the weekend. Everything in the top 5 fell hard. Extremely good for Sunny. I'm quite surprised at how well it's been doing. Nice hold for The Hunger Games. I expected a bigger drop. OK for A Simple Life. Average for A Dangerous Method. Mirror Mirror had another huge dive.

	Opening Saturday	3D showings
	Pirates 4	Toy Story 3	Transformers 3	Harry Potter 7-2	The Avengers
Pacific Place	21	28	28	22	27
Total	21	28	28	22	27
Palace APM	25	23	32	27	34
Total	25	28	35	34	37
Tsuen Wan	18	22	20	18	24
Total	18	22	22	21	24
Palace IFC	21	24	24	21	23
Total	21	24	24	21	23
Festival Walk	N/A	N/A	26	26	32
Total	N/A	N/A	33	32	32
The One	N/A	N/A	N/A	31	34
Total	N/A	N/A	N/A	33	34

*Bolded number is the leader for that row

Here are the # of Opening Saturday showings for five big movies in the past few years. The Avengers leads the showtime count at most theaters and when its showtime is lower than other movies, it has only been by one showtime. Although not listed, The Grand Cinema even notched 40 showtimes for The Avengers on Saturday.

The Avengers will increase on Friday. Expected Friday total will amount to over $800,000. 2-day total stands at over 1.5m.

____________________________________
Lockout is getting advanced screenings on Labour Day (May 1). No word if other upcoming movies are also doing this special engagement.

	Friday adm.				April 27
Rank	Title	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Avengers 3D	--	74,416	--	+13.3%
2	The Avengers 2D	--	1,994	--	-2.4%
3	Battleship	4,655	1,669	-64.1%	+46.9%
4	A Dangerous Method	--	758	--	+32.1%
5	407 Dark Flight 3D	2,138	698	-67.4%	+13.1%

Excellent for The Avengers. As expected, it will pass 1.5m in 2 days. Friday estimate for The Avengers is $820,000.

3D share - 97.4%
2D share - 2.6%

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			April 28
Rank	Title	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Avengers 3D	--	86,225	--	+74.4%
2	The Avengers 2D	--	2,322	--	+100.9%
3	Titanic 3D	3,609	916	-74.6%	+195.5%
4	Battleship	2,974	844	-71.6%	+107.4%
5	A Dangerous Method	--	526	--	+64.4%

This beats Harry Potter 7-2's opening Saturday pre-sales and Transformers 3's as well. Keep in mind that Transformers 3 already had a Friday holiday to take care of demand. This will be tricky to predict but I'll say it will hit 130,000 admissions today. Either way, this is beating the OW of the finale of Harry Potter. It could also take down Transformers 3's 4-day OW but this looks to be an outside chance for now.

I wonder if the big numbers in HK means big numbers across ASia?

Yes, it's already made 2.4m in 2 days in the Philippines and Taiwan. Most superhero movies do well across Asia.

1 PM Update

The Avengers (3D) has just crossed 100,000 admissions. This is even faster than when Transformers 3's opening Friday broke it which was a holiday as well. The Avengers will have the new single day record, taking over from Transformers 3.

I forgot that today is Buddha's Birthday. It's a general holiday but not a statutory one. It might have a slight effect on the admissions today but Saturday is usually the busiest day for 3D films regardless so these admissions aren't really a byproduct of the holiday in my opinion.

	Saturday adm.				April 28
Rank	Title	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Avengers 3D	--	146,641	--	+97.1%
2	Battleship	10,958	4,201	-61.7%	+151.7%
3	The Avengers 2D	--	3,191	--	+60.0%
4	The Hunger Games	4,313	1,325	-69.3%	--
5	Titanic 3D	6,595	1,264	-80.8%	--

The Avengers' opening Saturday total admissions - 149,832

3D share - 97.9%
2D share - 2.1%

The Avengers 3D squashes Transformers 3's 3D single-day admissions record. It also becomes the new recordholder for single day in gross beating Transformers 3's 1.286m.

The Avengers Saturday estimate - $1,550,000

	Weekend Projections			April 26
Rank	Title	TW (est.)	% chg	Total (est.)
1	The Avengers	$4,400,000		$4,400,000
2	Battleship	$110,000	-80.1%	$2,383,000
3	Titanic 3D	$55,000	-72.5%	$1,613,000
4	407 Dark Flight	$50,000	-74.2%	$315,000
5	Love in the Buff	$40,000	-70.7%	$3,600,000

The Avengers is projected to win the weekend and become the new holder of the 4-day record. This was largely unexpected given the release date and strong weekends that occurred in March and early April. Fantastic OW. This might be the precursor of an explosive summer with Amazing Spider-Man, Ice Age 4 and The Dark Knight Rises all contending for huge OWs.

Such big competition and robust business for the opener meant all holdovers were bulldozed in some capacity. Battleship was hit the hardest given The Avengers targeted the same demographic. Titanic also plunged due to loss of IMAX and regular weekend showtimes. 407 Dark Flight couldn't hold on and experienced a weekend purge (where almost no theater gave it any showtimes on the weekend). Love in the Buff's fate was similar to 407 Dark Flight.

Looks like The Avengers is heading for 120,000-130,000 admissions today for a grand total of over 400,000 admissions for the weekend.

Deadline is reporting that Avengers made 1.8m in 2 days in HK. If that is true, The Avengers will make over 4.5m this weekend.

	Sunday adm.				April 29
Rank	Title	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Avengers 3D	--	127,219	--	-13.2%
2	Battleship	7,673	3,481	-54.6%	9.1%
3	The Avengers 2D	--	3,276	--	-22.0%
4	Titanic 3D	5,521	1,323	-76.0%	--
5	The Hunger Games	--	1,215	--	-8.3%

The Avengers opening Sunday total admissions - 130,495

3D share - 97.5%
2D share - 2.5%

	Weekend adm.			Apr 26-29
Rank	Title	LW	TW	% chg
1	The Avengers 3D	--	413,974	--
2	The Avengers 2D	--	10,504	--
3	Battleship	26,630	10,487	-60.6%

The Avengers opening weekend total admissions - 424,478

3D share - 97.5%
2D share - 2.5%

The Avengers 2D clung onto #2 in admissions. The Avengers misses out on beating Deathly Hallows 2 in admissions but higher ticket prices have allowed it to become the OW ruler.

	Weekend Estimates			April 26
Rank	Title	TW (est.)	% chg	Total (est.)
1	The Avengers	$4,700,000		$4,700,000
2	Battleship	$140,000	-74.7%	$2,413,000
3	Titanic 3D	$55,000	-72.5%	$1,613,000
4	407 Dark Flight	$50,000	-74.2%	$315,000
5	Love in the Buff	$30,000	-78.0%	$3,590,000

4.6m is being reported by Deadline but I think it could go even higher when the remaining showtimes of Sunday are added in. The Avengers takes home the 4-day record and most likely the 5-day record. 6m 1st week is almost a lock. Battleship held much better on Sunday which sent its gross way up. The drop is not pretty but it will pass 2.4m this weekend. 2.5m is assured. After 3 weeks of solid holds, Titanic gives way to The Avengers. It's still a very good run and it possibly breathes new life into re-releases. 407 Dark Flight performed like the rest of them. Admissions did not look good this weekend but I'm banking on it being saved by higher ticket prices. Love in the Buff is really on shaky ground and might not be in the top 5 when actuals come in.

Just had a thought. If The Avengers can make 6m opening week, what will Amazing Spider-Man make in 6 days?

Going to be one hell of a summer.