The Sunday admissions ratio of Titans:Dragon is down to 22532:(7760*1.5) = 1.94, from 2.5 on Saturday.




Belated Schedule of 4/1 and 4/2 Openers:

	New Releases					April 2, 2010
Rank	Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings (Fri)	Platform
1	Clash of the Titans	US	IIB	34	280	Very Wide
2	How to Train Your Dragon	US	IIA	32	170	Very Wide
7	Fire of Conscience	Hong Kong	IIB	29	145	Wide
5	Beauty on Duty	Hong Kong	IIA	29	142	Wide
6	Crossing Hennessy	Hong Kong	IIA	23	119	Wide
-	The Spy Next Door	US	IIA	15	83	Semi-Wide
-	Planet 51	US	I	16	37	Semi-Wide

Clash of the Titans


How to Train Your Dragon


Fire of Conscience


Beauty on Duty


Crossing Hennessy


The Spy Next Door


Planet 51

Just in case my post was missed on the last page. Also, here are the Monday numbers so far.



Monday admissions (so far) - April 5

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 10,395
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 4,053
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,218
4. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 2,067
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 1,979
___________________________________________________
Monday April 5 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 20,814
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 7,778
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 7,203
4. Beauty On Duty - 5,882
5. Love In A Puff - 4,379

Tuesday admissions (so far) - April 6

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 9,303
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 3,906
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,186
4. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 1,971
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 1,704

So Clash of the Titans outsold How to Train Your Dragon by 1.85 to 1 on Monday. I think Dragon will start to show strength Tuesday as adults get back to work while kids stay on break.



I am not so sure about Future X-Cops' prospect. I agree that Andy Lau is still a draw after all that gossipy news. But the effects in the film look bad and the trailer gets rather negative reactions from the internet crowds. It may do well in China but not in Hong Kong.




P.S. Detailed box office for the weekend won't be available until Wednesday due to the holidays.

Today (Tuesday) is a big public holiday (Ching Ming) so adults have the day off here. Since yesterday was the Easter Monday holiday, the Ching Ming holiday was pushed back to today. Not sure if the schoolkids have to go back on Wednesday though.



Bad internet responses or not, this will do better in some predominantly Chinese areas than Kick-Ass. Then again, I think people are just waiting till April 29...I know I am.



Wednesday admissions (so far) - April 7

Rank	Title	# of Admissions	Daily % drop from yesterday
1	Clash of the Titans	5,721	-38.5%
2	How to Train Your Dragon - 3D Cantonese	1,946	-50.2%
3	Alice in Wonderland - 3D English	1,128	-42.8%
4	How to Train Your Dragon - 3D English	905	-46.9%
5	Echoes of the Rainbow	867	-62.8%

I thought Clash would have fall much harder than that. Presales for it on Wednesday looked dead. Interestingly enough, I have never seen such a collapse for Clash than I have ever seen for any other movie. Looking at pre-selling throughout last weekend and up to Wednesday, it went from completely full to completely empty in a span of 6 days at a bunch of theaters.

Alice is no doubt being helped by IMAX but they haven't been much help as the morning show is only 5% full, afternoon shows are 30-35% full, evening show is 50-60% full and late night show is 40% full. I don't even know what happened to Echoes.

Depressing numbers.

Don't read too much into these early numbers.

Echoes' steep drop can be attributed to its core audience group - 30-yr-old+ - getting back to work on Wednesday following a long weekend.

Your theater reports indicate Titans is going to have a harsh drop this weekend even with 3D.

4/8 Openers:

New Releases					April 8, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings	Platform
Date Night	US	IIB	16	114	Wide
The Messenger	US	III	3	14	Limited
Villon's Wife	Japan	IIB	3	13	Limited
Amphetamine	Hong Kong	III	3	12	Limited

Date Night (I like the way they introduce Shawn Levy as the "upgraded" director for his previous work in "Nights at the Museum 1 & 2" )


The Messengers


Villon's Wife


Amphetamine

4/7/2010

Amphetamine's Censorship Controversy:

Independent filmmaker Scud's "Amphetamine" has stirred up some controversy when it was submitted for rating by Hong Kong's Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA). On the first submission filed March 19, TELA refused to assign a rating unless several edits were made to a same-sex gang-raping scene in the film for its gratuitous depiction of sexual violence under coercion. Refusal to assign a rating is equivalent to banning the film from public theatrical release in Hong Kong.

The filmmakers of Amphetamine decided to black-out the entire gang-rape scene but with the soundtrack on (a similar tactic used by Todd Solenz' Storytelling). On the second submission, the film was assigned a cat. III rating (Under 18 Not Allowed). The film will open in select theaters April 8 as originally scheduled.

As a side note, Amphetamine was one of the two closing films of the Hong Kong International Film Festival on April 6. The censor-free version was screened at the closing night. The film premiered early this year at Berlin Film Festival.


Amphetamine's Trailer (You can catch a glimpse of the censored scene) NSFW

4/1 - 4/6 Long Weekend Wrap-Up:

[/tr][/tr]

	New Releases					April 2, 2010	4/1 - 4/6
Rank	Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings (Fri)	Platform	Thu - Tue
1	Clash of the Titans	US	IIB	34	280	Very Wide	HK$14,900,000
2	How to Train Your Dragon	US	IIA	32	170	Very Wide	HK$5,620,000
4	Beauty on Duty	Hong Kong	IIA	29	142	Wide	HK$3,140,000
5	Fire of Conscience	Hong Kong	IIB	29	145	Wide	HK$2,870,000
7	Crossing Hennessy	Hong Kong	IIA	23	119	Wide	HK$1,800,000
9	The Spy Next Door	US	IIA	15	83	Semi-Wide	HK$960,000
-	Planet 51	US	I	16	37	Semi-Wide	HK$550,000

How to Train Your Dragon opened to HK$5,620,000 on a six-day weekend, about 80% of what Monsters & Aliens did on a normal weekend last year.

Edit: As a side note, NC-17 rated Love in a Puff had a strong hold this weekend. It made $1,250,000 over the 6-day weekend, compared with $1,020,000 last weekend (4 days). Good word of mouth started to kick in. I think theaters will keep it for a while. The young demographic is really underserved by the local market.

Bluebomb, you might wonder why Fire of Conscience ranks above Crossing Hennessy in the chart but not on the daily chart on wmoov. From what I gathered from the movie blog 講。鏟。片 , the numbers for Fire provided by wmoov were incomplete.

Love in a Puff is doing solid business, I guess, but it doesn't have many showtimes. Its word of mouth has to spread fast because I think there are another 8 openers next weekend.

Thursday admissions (April 8) - at 4 PM

1. Clash of the Titans - 5,301 (-81.8% drop from last Thursday's final #)
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 2,585 (-47.8%)
3. Echoes of the Rainbow - 1,878 (-58.3%)
4. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 1,790
5. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English) - 1,239

Clash : Dragon ratio - 1.21

Holy shit. What a drop for Clash. To give you an idea how bad it's gotten for Clash, Love in a Puff has only a 9:45 night show today at IFC, and it's handily beating Clash's 3 evening shows (5:50, 7:50, 9:50) in admissions (58 to 47).

Great hold for Dragon...especially the English version. Also, Date Night's admissions are not included. It seems to me that those numbers are missing? No way it will do under Alice's #.

Final #s to be posted later.


Avatar and How To Train Your Dragon both extended in IMAX to April 21. Avatar is gaining one afternoon showing, Dragon in Cantonese is losing both showings except for weekend mornings, no change for Dragon in English.

Upcoming April releases:

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
Toy Story 1 - 3D

April 29

Iron Man 2
Ip Man 2
Toy Story 2 - 3D

Knight And Day - July 1
Toy Story 3 - July 15

*Blue and bold means just added.

Thursday admissions (April 8)

Rank	Title	# of Admissions	% drop from last week
1	Clash of the Titans	7,043	-75.9%
2	Date Night	4,667	--
3	How to Train Your Dragon - 3D Cantonese	2,933	-40.7%
4	Echoes of the Rainbow	2,657	-40.9%
5	Love in a Puff	2,171	--
-	How To Train Your Dragon - 3D English	1,952	--

Note: Admissions for both How To Train Your Dragon - 3D Cantonese and Echoes of the Rainbow are different from wmoov's final #s. Both numbers adjusted down in admissions the last few hours. This number is the last # that went up.

Clash:Dragon ratio - 1.44



Friday admissions (April 9) so far

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 4,208 (-73.1%)
2. Date Night - 2,490
3. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 1,367 (-69.7%)
4. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 1,328
5. Echoes of the Rainbow - 1,211 (-69.2%)

Clash:Dragon ratio - 1.56

4/8/2010 Brief Thursday Report

As the sole wide opener this week, Date Night made HK$384,801 on Thursday, April 8. Its opening day is 43% better than another Fox comedy What Happens in Vegas' on May 8, 2008.

If Date Night in the US should do 43% better than Vegas, its weekend take will be US$28.8 million.

More numbers tomorrow.

P.S. Bluebomb, do you want to make a table for upcoming releases? I can upload the table to the first post of this thread.

Friday admissions (April 9)

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 6,863 (-79.3%)
2. Date Night - 6,414
3. Love in a Puff - 3,089
4. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,054 (-56.8%)
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 2,570 (-68.8%)

Pitiful for Clash. Not a terrible drop for Echoes although it did suffer heavy drops last weekend too. I'm guessing Love in a Puff had the strongest hold out of the top 7.



Saturday admissions (so far) - April 10

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 4,662 (-63.5%)
2. Date Night - 2,580
3. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 2,193 (-41.4%)
4. Echoes of the Rainbow - 1,646 (-51.3%)
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 1,616 (-26.0%)

Clash : Dragon ratio: 1.22

Terrible drop for Clash (as it has been all week). Keep in mind that while that drop for Clash is not as bad as previous days' drops, last Saturday was not considered a public holiday. This week's numbers are definitely inflated by this. Could today be the day that Date Night passes Clash in daily admissions? Most likely, given that Clash started out yesterday well above Date Night and finished just 400 admissions ahead of it by the day's end. Very strong holds for Dragon in Cantonese and Echoes. Dragon in English dropped an amazing 26%. Fantastic.



I think I will stick to just listing them out. It's much faster for me that way.

Thursday, April 8

	New Releases					April 8, 2010
Rank	Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings	Platform	Thursday	Admissions per showing
3	Date Night	US	IIB	31	187	Very Wide	HK$384,801	34
-	Amphetamine	Hong Kong	III	6	17	Limited	HK$40,000	39
-	Villon's Wife	Japan	IIB	5	21	Limited	HK$33,000	26
-	The Messenger	US	III	3	14	Limited	HK$8,700	10

		Holdovers				April 8, 2010
TW	LW	Title	Weeks	Thursday	% Change from LW	Total
1	1	Clash of the Titans	2	HK$633,636	-72%	HK$16,513,744
2	2	How to Train Your Dragon	2	HK$451,541	-12%	HK$6,547,124
4	3	Beauty on Duty	2	HK$217,756	-48%	HK$3,643,987
5	4	Echoes of the Rainbow	5	HK$209,638	-22%	HK$19,795,222
6	9	Love in a Puff	3	HK$122,549	+18%	HK$3,150,000
7	6	Alice in Wonderland	6	HK$118,394	not available	HK$43,122,624
8	8	Avatar	17	HK$110,049	-24%	HK$173,504,618
9	5	Fire of Conscience	2	HK$107,117	-69%	HK$3,180,000
10	7	Crossing Hennessy	2	HK$67,187	-69%	HK$2,190,000

Benefiting from Thursday being a school holiday and the 3D price premium, Titans and Dragon were able to hold on to the top 2 spots. Dragon has a slight chance of getting ahead of Titans during the weekend.

Love in a Puff's staying power is really impressive, especially for a NC-17 film. Theaters are giving it more showtimes while cutting showtimes for its direct competition Crossing Hennessy.

Wow, I thought it opened with a low number but word of mouth for Puff has kicked in. Avatar's almost caught up with Alice. Pretty nice for Echoes and great for Dragon.

Avatar's run in IMAX is over. Iron Man (DMR version) will start showing in IMAX on April 30 (Friday). For now, Avatar is set to end on Apr. 21 although it could be extended to April 29 at the very latest.

Looks like the table didn't take very long to make. Here you go.

Release Date	Movie Title
April 15	Kick-Ass Season of the Witch Monga Future X-Cops White Night Micmacs à tire-larigot Brothers A Serious Man
April 22	The Ghost Writer Agora Amalfi Legion Toy Story 1 - 3D Little Ashes
April 29	Ip Man 2 Iron Man 2 Toy Story 2 - 3D

Kick-Ass has just been certified with the III (no one under 18 allowed) rating. All the more reason for me to see it, I guess. Its rating will hurt it though. All that business from teen boys lost.

Saturday admissions (April 10)

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 13,637 (-48.8%)
2. Date Night - 13,457
3. Love in a Puff - 9,306
4. Echoes of the Rainbow - 7,413 (+4.0%)
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 6,251 (-14.5%)

Nice drop for Dragon. That drop is awful for Clash...as usual. Date Night was pretty close to overtaking Clash. Love in a Puff was the HUGE surprise of the top 5...increasing at least over 40% from last Saturday. Echoes had an incredible hold as well.



Sunday admissions (so far) - April 11

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 7,604 (-32.4%)
2. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 4,425 (+5.5%)
3. Date Night - 3,409
4. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 3,052 (+47.7%)
5. Echoes of the Rainbow - 2,762 (-21.6%)

Insane number for Dragon for both versions. The English one is especially WOW-worthy. Although Easter Sunday deflated its numbers last weekend, I suspect that if it were a regular Sunday, the English version would still increase this weekend.

Clash : Dragon ratio - 1.02

Final number - admissions (Thursday -> Saturday)

Clash watch: 7,043 -> 6,863 -> 13,637 = 27,543 admissions so far (-69.0%)
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) watch: 2,933 -> 2,570 -> 6,251 = 11,754 admissions so far (-42.7%)

Forgot to mention that IMAX has already released advanced ticketing for Iron Man 2 starting from Apr. 30 up to May 6.

Sunday April 11 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 12,199 (-45.4%)
2. Date Night - 10,483
3. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 8,236 (+6.1%)
4. Echoes of the Rainbow - 7,100 (+2.2%)
5. Love in a Puff - 6,930



Final number - admissions (Thursday -> Sunday)

Clash watch: 7,043 -> 6,863 -> 13,637 -> 12,199 = 39,742 admissions (-64.3%)
How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) watch: 2,933 -> 2,570 -> 6,251 -> 8,236 = 19,990 admissions (-29.3%)



Monday admissions (so far) - April 12

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 3,813 (-63.3%)
2. Date Night - 1,336
3. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - English) - 1,095 (-44.7%)
4. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 1,074 (-73.5%)
5. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 729 (-64.7%)

First time that the English version of Dragon is ahead of the Cantonese one. Also, surprisingly good hold by the English version of Dragon. Other drops look pretty standard after coming off a holiday.

So Dragon (Cantonese and English) surpassed Titans in admission on Sunday.

I updated the first post with a schedule upcoming releases made by Bluebomb.

Bluebomb, if you have MS Excel on your computer, you can create a table with ease using this Excel code converter created by KJ member Krem (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8997).

Monday April 12 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 5,536 (-73.4%)
2. Date Night - 3,266
3. Love In A Puff - 2,394 (-45.3%)
4. Echoes of the Rainbow - 1,686 (-76.6%)
5. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 1,610 (-79.3%)



Tuesday admissions (so far) - April 13

1. Clash of the Titans (3D) - 4,515 (-51.5%)
2. Date Night - 1,994
3. How To Train Your Dragon (3D - Cantonese) - 1,325 (-66.1%)
4. Love In A Puff - 1,283
5. Echoes of the Rainbow - 1,150 (-63.9%)

Let's kick off the new week!

4/15 Openers

New Releases					April 15, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings	Platform
Future X-Cops	HK/China	IIA			Very Wide
Kick-Ass	US	III			Very Wide
Monga	Taiwan				Wide
Brothers	US				Limited
White Night	South Korea	III			Limited
A Serious Man	US				Limited
Micmacs	France	IIB			Limited

Future X-Cops (Andy Lau looks so "futuristic"?!)


Kick-Ass


Monga (I heard this did crazy business in Taiwan.)


Brothers


White Night (This South Korean film is based on a Japanese novel.)


A Serious Man


Micmacs (Director of Amelie Jean-Pierre Jeunet returns to his root doing an interesting cult film.)

Updated with all ratings filled in.

Here's a look at 3 theaters and what they are showing on Thursday.

Palace IFC
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Brothers	Date Night (week 2) - 4 showings (down from 5 on Wednesday)	How To Train Your Dragon - 3D English (week 3)
Micmacs à tire-larigot	Amphetamine (week 2) - 1 showing (down from 2)	Alice in Wonderland - 3D English (week 7)
A Serious Man	Villon's Wife (week 2) - 1 showing (down from 3)
White Night	Clash of the Titans (week 3) - 1 showing (down from 5)
	Crossing Hennessy (week 3) - 1 showing (down from 5)
	Love in a Puff (week 4) - 1 showing (down from 2)
	Echoes of the Rainbow (week 6) - 1 showing (down from 4)
	Avatar (week 18) - 1 showing (no change)

By the way, those week 2, week 3 in parentheses means that the movie is in their 2nd week or 3rd week of release.

Thought for sure Kick-Ass would be showing here. Turns out they are showing both of the foreign language films being released. Avatar surviving was a bit of a surprise, although I think it was between Avatar and Alice in Wonderland for the last showtime and Avatar has consistently done better in admissions than Alice at that theater. Dragon out of that theater is a big surprise. While it clearly had terrible admissions on weekdays, it was beating Clash in admissions by a healthy margin during the weekends.

Palace APM
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Future X-Cops	Date Night - 4 showings (down from 7)	How To Train Your Dragon - 3D Cantonese
Monga	Clash of the Titans - 4 showings (down from 7)	The Spy Next Door
Kick-Ass	Beauty on Duty - 2 showings (down from 6)	Shutter Island
White Night	Love in a Puff - 3 showings (down from 4)	Fire of Conscience (technically it does have 1 show on Thursday, but it's at midnight)
	Echoes of the Rainbow - 2 showings (down from 4)	Planet 51 - Cantonese
		Crossing Hennessy

Fest. Walk
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Future X-Cops	Date Night - 4 showings (down from 7)	The Messenger
Monga	Clash of the Titans - 2 showings (down from 6)	Planet 51 (Cantonese)
Kick-Ass	How To Train Your Dragon (3D English) - 1 showing (down from 4)	How To Train Your Dragon - 3D Cantonese
A Serious Man	Crossing Hennessy - 1 showing (down from 5)	The Hurt Locker
White Night	Love in a Puff - 2 showings (down from 3)	Fire of Conscience
	Echoes of the Rainbow - 4 showings (down from 5)
	Shutter Island - 1 showing (down from 3)
	Alice in Wonderland (3D English) - 1 showing (down from 3)

Weekend of Apr. 1-4, 2010:

TW LW Movie Studio Weekend Gross Change Screens Change / Avg. Gross-to-Date Week
1 N Clash of the Titans (2010) WB $1,379,653 - 48 - $28,743 $1,379,653 1
2 N How to Train Your Dragon Intercontinental $460,099 - 37 - $12,435 $460,099 1
3 N Love Undercover 4 Beauty on Duty Lark $273,840 - 36 - $7,607 $273,840 1
4 N For lung (Fire of Conscience) n/a $245,858 - 39 - $6,304 $245,858 1
5 1 2001: A Space Odyssey (Re-issue) Echoes of the Rainbow Newport $239,522 -39.5% 34 -5 $7,045 $2,353,328 4
6 N Yue man xuan ni shi (Crossing Hennessy) EDKO $188,637 - 25 - $7,545 $188,637 1
7 2 Alice in Wonderland (2010) Disney $138,127 -55.9% 14 -27 $9,866 $5,440,559 5
8 4 Chi ming yu chun giu (Love in a Puff) Gala $103,466 -20.8% 21 -5 $4,927 $310,540 2
9 3 Avatar Fox $83,874 -45.5% 3 -3 $27,958 $22,265,962 16
10 N The Spy Next Door Panasia $76,941 - 18 - $4,275 $76,941 1
11 5 Shutter Island Intercontinental $42,301 -66.7% 9 -7 $4,700 $847,684 4
12 N Planet 51 Golden Scene $40,286 - 20 - $2,014 $40,286 1
13 8 The Hurt Locker Golden Scene $35,058 -57.3% 7 -1 $5,008 $581,150 4
14 6 When in Rome Disney $15,733 -85.9% 6 -16 $2,622 $174,780 2
15 7 Yuet gwong bo hup (Just Another Pandora's Box) Lark $9,142 -90.5% 5 -25 $1,828 $480,397 3
16 14 Nodame Kantâbire: Saishuu-gakushou - Zenpen Panasia $9,139 -61.3% 3 -8 $3,046 $570,246 5
17 12 The Fantastic Mr. Fox Fox $8,392 -65.2% 5 -5 $1,678 $43,759 2
18 11 It's Complicated EDKO $7,404 -78.1% 2 -10 $3,702 $364,769 4
19 17 A Single Man Cable $6,871 +8.1% 2 -1 $3,436 $98,732 4
21 16 The White Ribbon n/a $5,031 -46.5% 2 - $2,516 $18,636 2
22 10 The Lovely Bones Intercontinental $4,769 -89.0% 2 -13 $2,385 $212,453 3
23 21 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire EDKO $1,383 -39.0% 1 -1 $1,383 $154,411 6
24 15 Cheuuat gaawn chim (The Meat Grinder) Intercontinental $526 -94.6% 1 -9 $526 $14,620 2
25 19 Wonangsori (Old Partner) n/a $411 -87.7% 1 - $411 $4,913 2

Clash had a great opening. It used the holidays to obliterate the competition. What a stunning PSA.

How To Train Your Dragon opened well behind Clash but it will definitely hold well next week due to its excellent word of mouth.

Beauty on Duty had a solid opening as it nearly had a $8,000 PSA. This is your typical Chinese film that draws you in with the stars and quickly dies a horrible death a week after.

Fire of Conscience had an ok opening although I think we can safely say no one gives a shit about or cares to watch Leon Lai anymore.

Echoes of the Rainbow had a great hold in the midst of huge competition. Not only did it lose a lot of good showtimes but it faced heavy competition from Dragon and Clash. Still, it was the only thing of its nature that was a Chinese film that is geared towards families (in a mature way).

Crossing Hennessy had a weak opening boosted by its special screenings the weekend before. I saw the film and thought it was ok, better than I expected. Maybe people don't like seeing Jacky anymore?

Alice in Wonderland didn't hold well enough even with the screen loss. It doesn't have the staying power like some other movies and is playing itself as a typical Hollywood flick that leaves within 2 months of release.

Love in a Puff had a strong hold even with the holidays helping it. It didn't have many showtimes to begin with but its strong word of mouth has gathered people in to watch it.

Avatar had an understandable hold given that it lost 2 of its IMAX showtimes to make room for Dragon. I know for sure there was 3 IMAX sellouts (out of the 5 days from Fri. - Tues.) that it had and this prevented it from having a 50% drop as opposed to a 45% one.

The Spy Next Door opened just behind Avatar and didn't offer much for moviegoers.

Shutter Island dropped big but its mixed word-of-mouth here is not doing the movie any favours.

Planet 51 opened to mild business. The trailer itself wasn't very funny and this was overshadowed by How To Train Your Dragon.

Ok for The Hurt Locker. It should be able to cross $600,000 US.

A Single Man increased from last weekend thanks to the holidays.

^^ It seems White Night is getting booked by quite a few theaters. Maybe I should change its platform to "semi-wide" or "wide". What's with AMC Festival Walk cutting so many showtimes for the holdovers?

What numbers are we looking at for Kick-Ass? Is it going to perform like Watchmen, big opening day followed by big drops? Isn't Andy Lau's Future X-Cops (directed by Jing Wong) going after the same audiences?

Can Nodame Cantabile Part I reach $600,000?

Not likely. It is playing at only one theater with 70 seats. And it faces some direct competition this week and next; South Korean film White Night (which is based off a Japanese novel) opens this week and a Japanese film (Amalfi) the weekend after.

Amalufi: Megami no hoshu was a big film last summer in Japan. It starred Yuji Oda (Bayside Shakedown series) and Toda Erika (Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers, Desu Noto/Death Note, Liar Game), earning almost $40m. It could be an interesting one to watch there.

Probably semi-wide would be best as I don't think it will get much more theaters playing it. Festival Walk cutting so many showtimes is understandable because they are showing 5 new releases this week and they have to make room for them. Clash has been underperforming. Dragon hasn't been doing much on weekdays and even Date Night is not doing too well.

Sidenote: Clash of the Titans is completely gone from IFC on Friday -- no showtimes...although there is only one 9:00 PM showing on Fri. for all movies (Brothers).

What was Watchmen's rating? I think if Kick-Ass has strong word of mouth like it did in the UK, it should do well in the upcoming weeks. But I think people are skeptical here with this type of movie. It could end up being the opposite of Watchmen -- low opening but holding up well in the next few weeks. I'm hoping that it does because I want to see it but I don't have time this week to watch it. Opening day hasn't looked too great, but at Festival Walk, it is beating every new release in admissions and gross (just by looking at the 7-8 PM showing).

I think Future X-Cops and Kick-Ass might be overlapping with each other, but Kick-Ass's rating means that it is geared towards mature audiences while Future X-Cops is trying to covet the tween/teen crowd. Gundam is VERY popular here so I wouldn't be surprised if it does well.