Nice, Bluebomb.

Thursday's openers:

Echoes of the Rainbow - Wide
It's Complicated - Wide
Shutter Island - Wide
The Hurt Locker - Medium Wide
A Single Man - Limited

The one thing I don't understand is why they keep releasing so many movies one week then the next week, there's only one or two movies that come out.

Like, April 1st will be really packed. 3 HK movies, 2 big 3D movies (How To Train Your Dragon + Clash of the Titans), Planet 51. But next week's (Mar. 18) openers look like fillers to me. The Young Victoria, The Last Station and a local movie doesn't look like it will do much.

Even on Chinese New Year, there were 8 new releases that week?! (Not to mention 2 versions of The Princess and the Frog.) The next week? Nothing. It was either expansions (I do not count Wolfman or Hot Summer Days as being new. They were both given special screenings.) or a movie that, most likely, only played at 1 theater. Why couldn't they have just released it 4 one week and 4 the next. Surely, the screen count is more important than the holiday boost?

Friday admissions:

1. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 22,712
2. Echoes of the Rainbow - 12,696
3. Shutter Island - 5,973
4. The Hurt Locker - 5,075
5. It's Complicated - 5,070

Saturday admissions (so far):

1. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 24,059
2. Echoes of the Rainbow - 9,131
3. The Hurt Locker - 4,682
4. Shutter Island - 3,767
5. Avatar (3D) - 3,470

That's because of the holidays. Chinese New Year is a big one. Easter is another big one as most schools are out. Distributors want their films to take advantage of the entire holiday week so they try to open films right before the holiday starts. Opening a week during the holiday week is not a good idea as people don't pay attention to the publicity machine during the holidays. Opening too early before the holiday starts is also no good.

I understand that but it still doesn't explain why they would risk getting less screentimes just to get a week of holiday boosts. Granted, every day is like a Saturday but sometimes you don't even get any showtimes for being a new release because there are so many choices for the theater owners to choose from. They also have to think about which holdovers to keep if they are doing great business. With the exception of the Grand Cinema, if 8 films were released on the same day of any week, theaters would have to skip showing 1 or 2 films or share screens with each other.

I understand the logic but if they're all about making profits, maybe they should move their films elsewhere where there are few movies coming out to capitalize on the market.

Sunday March 14 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Alice in Wonderland - 42,836 (-35.3%)
2. Echoes of the Rainbow - 27,348
3. Shutter Island - 10,322
4. The Hurt Locker - 9,750
5. Nodame Cantabile (Part 1) - 7,020 (-40.2%)

That's some good drop for Alice. 3D is helping its legs.

New Releases					March 11, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	Theater Count	# Showings (OD)	Comment	Thursday (OD)	Sunday
Echoes of the Rainbow	Hong Kong	IIA	40	207	Very Wide	HK$ 510,000	HK$ 1,010,000
It's Complicated	US	IIB	21	98	Wide	HK$ 140,000	HK$ 340,000
Shutter Island	US	IIB	16	75	Wide	HK$ 280,000	HK$ 530,000
The Hurt Locker	US	IIB	7	36	Limited	HK$ 260,000	HK$ 420,000
A Single Man	US	IIB	5	25	Limited	HK$ 46,000	HK$ 84,000

Ratings Legend:
I - Suitable for All Ages, IIA - Not Suitable for Children, IIB - Not Suitable for Young Persons and Children, III - Persons Aged 18 and Above Only

A Single Man lol

Obviously it's not going to set any cash registers on fire, but I am hoping it does well abroad. For the type of film it is.

Is the HK number good?

It is a pretty good number indeed. Its opening weekend is a little below Precious but better than The Blind Side and Crazy Heart, all of which were limited releases in the past two weeks.

Ooh, cool.

My take on this is it may be even harder to get good screen allocation when it's already days into the holiday.

The ideal situation of course is to have movies spread out across the calendar. But distributors are rivals looking to do what's best in their own interest. It's hard for any of them to compromise in a way that is not beneficial to themselves.

Note: Echoes of the Rainbow won the Berlinale award so some admissions should be directly linked for that reason.

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Alice in Wonderland has been extended for two weeks at the IMAX theatre it is showing at. Earliest it can be pulled will be April 15. How To Train Your Dragon will probably start showing that day.

Not sure about Avatar, but it's likely that it will get pulled at the end of the month and replaced by either Clash of the Titans or How To Train Your Dragon.

3/15/2010

The Hong Kong International Film Festival (http://www.hkiff.org.hk/) will run from March 21 to April 6 in Hong Kong. Over 250 films from more than 50 countries will be seen in 11 cultural venues across the territory.

A list of featured film titles and descriptions is available here

Some highlights of the event:

Love in a Puff (directed by Pang Ho-Cheung)



Russian Lessons (a documentary about the war-torn region traveled by a married couple)



The Refuge (directed by Francois Ozon)



The Loved Ones (directed by Aussie Sean Byrne)

Now confirmed. How To Train Your Dragon starts showing on April 1 with 1 morning show (dubbed) and 1 afternoon show (in English). As for the evening shows, those are still TBD.

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Weekend of March 11-14, 2010:

1 1 Alice in Wonderland (2010) Disney $1,279,299 -32.7% 60 -8 $21,322 $3,794,353 2
2 N 2001: A Space Odyssey (Re-issue) Newport $616,560 - 42 - $14,680 $616,560 1
3 N Shutter Island Intercontinental $235,752 - 16 - $14,735 $235,752 1
4 N The Hurt Locker Golden Scene $174,141 - 7 - $24,877 $174,141 1
5 3 Avatar Fox $165,378 -13.6% 7 -6 $23,625 $21,700,741 13
6 N It's Complicated EDKO $149,948 - 21 - $7,140 $149,948 1
7 2 Nodame Kantâbire: Saishuu-gakushou - Zenpen Panasia $124,313 -45.8% 25 -1 $4,973 $420,109 2
8 5 Up in the Air Intercontinental $44,976 -74.3% 21 -5 $2,142 $669,727 3
9 4 72 ga cho hak (72 Tenants of Prosperity) Intercontinental $38,225 -79.7% 23 -12 $1,662 $4,415,036 5
10 N A Single Man Cable $36,471 - 6 - $6,079 $36,471 1
11 8 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire EDKO $15,490 -52.5% 5 -1 $3,098 $133,172 3
12 13 The Blind Side WB $14,088 +0.2% 3 -2 $4,696 $75,151 3
13 6 Nine Intercontinental $10,041 -87.2% 9 -11 $1,116 $352,873 3
14 10 Gam yee wai (14 Blades) Gala $6,296 -66.0% 7 -3 $899 $981,665 5
15 12 Crazy Heart Fox $6,022 -62.3% 4 -1 $1,506 $32,105 2
16 9 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Fox $3,597 -87.3% 3 -16 $1,199 $2,007,409 5
17 11 All's Well Ends Well 2010 Newport $3,573 -78.9% 4 -8 $893 $2,001,088 5
18 7 Little Big Soldier Lark $2,899 -92.4% 3 -15 $966 $243,950 3
19 15 Su Qi-Er (True Legend) EDKO $1,739 -84.0% 1 -6 $1,739 $1,260,551 5
20 17 The Princess and the Frog Disney $914 -72.8% 1 -3 $914 $546,932 5
21 16 Valentine's Day WB $612 -87.1% 1 -4 $612 $1,179,140 5
22 14 Chuen sing yit luen - yit lat lat (Hot Summer Days) Fox $336 -97.1% 1 -12 $336 $407,935 4

Alice had a good but not spectacular hold. So far, in 3D places this week, Alice has been overtaken by the Hurt Locker and Shutter Island in the business districts in terms of securing the largest screens, while in others, Echoes of the Rainbow has done it. Alice will probably have another 30% drop next week due to IMAX helping it. Looks like it's pretty much a 2 week wonder here.

2001? Since when? What? I'm completely baffled that this debuted that strong. I didn't see any trailers or any theaters playing this. Complete surprise to me. Wait...that must be Echoes of the Rainbow. If so, that strong debut can be attributed to winning the Berlinale award. It hasn't been given the best showtimes but it has been more than holding its own for what it has. Echoes of the Rainbow, I think, also took away some business from Alice.

Shutter Island had a pretty good opening. It is pretty surprising that 1 of the business districts is not showing this. It could have been a moneymaker for them if they did. Also, don't be fooled by Shutter Island's screens. Most of it is not due to high demand but reshuffling the movie to play on smaller screens when there's not a lot of business coming in. To give you an example, Shutter Island will be playing on 4 different screens in 1 theater this coming Friday but those 4 screens are shared with other movies.

The Hurt Locker had an exceptional opening, no doubt bolstered by the 6 oscar wins. Those oscars have been plastered all over the movie posters in attempt to draw people in. It will most likely have a great hold next week as it has overtaken Alice for the biggest screens.

Avatar had a fantastic hold. It lost all of its weekend showtimes at 2 theatres this week and some of the ticketing for the weekend was delayed until Thursday night/Friday morning. (Note: this happened to all of the movies playing at certain theaters, not just Avatar.) It speaks to Avatar though that even with those factors, it is still able to lose just a fraction of what it made last week.

It's Complicated had an ok opening. I think that it was overshadowed by the other movies though. Echoes of the Rainbow and The Hurt Locker really took away from it's business.

Nodame Cantabile had a solid drop. Considering the competition and that anime usually means upfront business and then terrible drops, it really didn't do too badly.

A Single Man had a good opening. I thought that it was not going to survive the week as the sales looked pretty slow from my point of view.

The fascination with Precious is over. It has been given very good showtimes in my opinion and was lucky to keep the 7 PM showtime this week. The business that it got for a 7 PM showing was pretty paltry...only 30-50% full on weeknights.

No surprise that The Blind Side increased this week. It was given marginally better showtimes this week and it capitalized. Sales looked stronger than Precious but it lost out to Precious for the primetime slot.

Nothing really to note for the others. Bring on Easter weekend!

I laughed when I read this. But wouldn't it be great to see a classic like 2001:A Space Odyssey re-enters the chart?

Yeah. Maybe they'll re-release Gone With The Wind next week.

Great title change. I think you brought in some hits with that one.

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Thursday admissions (March 18)

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 9,500
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English) - 7,884
3. Just Another Pandora's Box - 6,231
4. Shutter Island - 4,239
5. The Hurt Locker - 3,015

WOW for Echoes of the Rainbow. If you compare that to last Friday's number (12,696), it made 74.8% of Friday's number. I think it could very well increase in Friday admissions. The other surprise for me was Just Another Pandora's Box. Looks like people were in the mood for a local comedy.

Friday admissions (March 19) so far

1. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English) - 6,704
2. Echoes of the Rainbow - 5,300
3. Shutter Island - 2,364
4. The Hurt Locker - 1,760
5. Avatar (3D) - 1,698

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I have to rant. I hate that the theaters are delaying ticketing on the weekends. This has happened for the past 2 weeks at most Broadway/AMC cinemas and it's reducing the number of ticket sales for Saturday. If you don't know, they delay ticketing until around the evening (ticket sales for 3 theaters were all delayed until 11 PM) when they are typically supposed to start selling tickets 2 days beforehand at the beginning of the day.
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Funny thing that is happening this weekend. At one theater, Echoes of the Rainbow and Just Another Pandora's Box are showing on all 5 screens in one day. Even worse is that this occurs twice (Saturday and Sunday).

Looks like theater owners are having a tough time scheduling which movies to show where. At another theater, the biggest screen that they have there seats 354 people and they have 6 other screens that are in the 100 range. The biggest screen will show 3 different movies on Saturday at various times (Alice in the morning, Echoes of the Rainbow in the afternoon, Hurt Locker at night).

3/18/2010

New Releases for the Week

New Releases					March 18, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	Theater Count	# Showings (OD)	Release Platform
Just Another Pandora's Box	HK/China	IIB	32	173	Very Wide
The Lovely Bones	US	IIA	15	74	Wide
Womb Ghosts	Hong Kong	IIB	15	59	Wide
The Last Station	UK/Germany/Russia	IIB	2	10	Limited

Ratings Legend:
I - Suitable for All Ages, IIA - Not Suitable for Children, IIB - Not Suitable for Young Persons and Children, III - Persons Aged 18 and Above Only



Just Another Pandora's Box


The Lovely Bones


Womb Ghosts


The Last Station

It makes sense the theater has such arrangement. Keeping Alice in the daytime can attract kid and family audiences. Playing holdovers Echoes of the Rainbow and The Hurt Locker on the largest screen in the afternoon and evening is a wise decision as the two movies have the highest PTA in the top 10.

3/18/2010 Thursday Numbers:

New Releases					March 18, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings	Platform	Thursday
Just Another Pandora's Box	HK/China	IIB	32	173	Very Wide	HK$ 330,000
The Lovely Bones	US	IIA	15	74	Wide	HK$ 130,000
Womb Ghosts	Hong Kong	IIB	15	59	Wide	HK$ 56,000 est.*
The Last Station	UK/Germany/Russia	IIB	2	10	Limited	HK$ 16,000

*Four cinemas showing Womb Ghosts reported unproportionally high number for the movie. 83% of the reported Thursday gross (HK$ 160,000) came from the four cinemas. If you take out the suspicious numbers and make a projection based on the remaining numbers, Womb Ghosts' Thursday gross will be about HK$ 56,000.

Holdovers			March 18, 2010
Title	Weeks	Thursday	Week-to-Week Drop
Alice in Wonderland	3	HK$ 550,000	-53%
Echoes of the Rainbow	2	HK$ 540,000	+6%
Shutter Island	2	HK$ 190,000	-32%
The Hurt Locker	2	HK$ 160,000	-38%
Avatar	14	HK$ 190,000	-6%

What is Echoes of the Rainbow about?

Yay! The Last Station! I hopes it number is good.

It is a "nostalgic family melodrama" set in the late 1960's in Hong Kong, according to Variety. It is about a working-class family whose living home is being threatened by a powerful typhoon. The film premiered in Berlin Film Festival in Germany in January/February.

I haven't seen it as it is not being released here in the States. But I will probably catch it on DVD later. Maybe Bluebomb can tell you more about it.

It is doing okay business considering there are lots of choices out there.