Three weeks in release, Ten Years is still selling out all seven daily shows in one single theater.


http://www.cinema.com.hk/en/movie/details/8633




Extras is about a terror attack in Hong Kong orchestrated by China's Defense Department and HK police and gangs so to induce public support for China's national security laws to be applied to HK. Self-Immolator is a docudrama featuring conversations between pro-government and independence activists revolving around HK's future. Is today's Tibet tomorrow's HK?

From what I've read so far, this movie is very upfront and direct about HK's situation. The authoritarian government and some people north of the border will not be happy about it. I am glad the movie is filling seats in HK and probably will get a wider release. It is doing better than Star Wars and Ip Man 3 in terms of PSA and percentage holds.

Damn those high priced tickets. Ip Man 3 should have taken the weekend from SW7

It's not getting a wider release. This is very much a niche movie. lol at comparing it to Star Wars and Ip Man 3 with PSA's. Ip Man 3 and Star Wars 7 have no hope of being in the same realm as Ten Years in PSA because they are both playing in 40x Ten Years' theaters. Let me point out another meaningless stat in that Ip Man 3 had a better avg per people showing than Ten Years this weekend. Why? Ten Years one screen can only seat 115 people maximum per showing and Ip Man 3's admissions per showing average was more than 130 the whole weekend, therefore, it would be impossible for Ten Years to usurp Ip Man 3 in admissions per showing, just like it is impossible for Ip Man 3 or Star Wars 7 to beat out Ten Years in PSA.

Absolutely. But Ip Man 3 will win New Year's weekend. How did Ip Man 3 fare in Singapore? WOM?

	Monday adm.				December 28
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	4,800	29,050	+505.2%	-41.0%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	27,159	21,140	-22.2%	-44.0%
3	The Peanuts Movie	3,419	8,917	+160.8%	-47.2%
4	The Little Prince	--	7,380	--	-41.6%
5	Anniversary	--	6,525	--	-35.8%
6	Yo-Kai Watch	--	3,032	--	-55.1%
7	Ten Years	629	855	+35.9%	+19.9%
8	Burnt	814	707	-13.1%	-8.3%
9	Initiation Love	623	393	-36.9%	-60.8%
10	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2	1,019	373	-63.4%	--

Strong for Ip Man 3. It had the best hold out of the top 4 from Sunday. Star Wars 7 fought back slightly. The drop is still not all that great. Weaker for Peanuts today but it is playing more to the family crowd than The Little Prince. Good for Anniversary.

	Tuesday adm.	(so far)			December 29
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	17,946	12,347	-31.2%	--
2	Ip Man 3	1,526	9,469	+520.5%	--
3	The Peanuts Movie	3,071	4,959	+61.5%	--
4	The Little Prince	--	3,251	--	--
5	Yo-Kai Watch	--	1,815	--	--
6	Anniversary	--	1,603	--	--
7	Ten Years	450	772	+71.6%	--
8	Burnt	244	171	-29.9%	--
9	Go Lala Go 2	--	139	--	--
10	Port of Call	197	105	-46.7%	--

Ehhh for Star Wars. Very strong for Ip Man 3. Nice rebound for Peanuts.

lol... The fact that it has sold out every show two days in advance is a reason enough to give it a wider release. With no backing from big studios and distributors, its holding better than SW7 and IM3 surely pisses off some people.

I haven't seen any official numbers but I think Ip Man 3 did just a little below Ip Man 2 in Singapore. WoM seems good to great here.

No it is not. It is an arthouse/indie film. It pigeon holes itself to ever be considered being picked up by the other arthouse-y theaters like IFC or GRAND or Metroplex.

Who cares how well a very limited release is holding better than their ultra wide counterparts? It's still 1 theater vs. over 40. And Ip Man 3 hasn't even had its 2nd weekend yet so I'm not sure why you're comparing a holdover to an opener.

I read that it made like $765,000 SG on Christmas Day in Singapore.
____________________________________________________________
Ip Man 3 is primed for an increase this weekend. Star Wars 7 is going to drop big. Anniversary is doing very well and even selling tickets faster than Ip Man 3 at a couple of locations so far.

Thanks to your suggestion, UA Cinemas has joined the list of arthouse-y theaters. It added arthouse/indie film Ten Years at two of its locations on December 31 and January 1.

http://www.uacinemas.com.hk/eng/movie/MovieDetail?key=4121

		Weekly Gross (Mon-Sun)							Dec 21-27
LW	TW	Title	Last Week (HKD)	This Week (HKD)	Days in release	% chg	Total (HKD)	This Week (USD)	Total (USD)
1	1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$26,645,964	$30,134,633	11	+13.1%	$57,023,022	$3,887,402	$7,356,036
--	2	Ip Man 3	$1,708,559	$18,795,184	4	+1000.1%	$20,503,743	$2,424,600	$2,645,006
3	3	The Peanuts Movie	$1,561,533	$7,638,876	4	+389.2%	$9,229,752	$985,423	$1,190,648
9	4	The Little Prince	$607,461	$5,576,683	4	+818.0%	$6,204,713	$719,398	$800,415
--	5	Anniversary	$27,538	$4,425,406	0	+15970.2%	$4,452,944	$570,882	$574,434
--	6	Yo-Kai Watch	--	$2,202,285	4	--	$2,202,285	$284,097	$284,097
2	7	Keeper of Darkness	$1,613,101	$587,550	32	-63.6%	$17,362,679	$75,794	$2,239,805
--	8	Initiation Love	--	$515,670	18	--	$1,541,369	$66,522	$198,838
6	9	Burnt	$741,068	$472,207	18	-36.3%	$2,429,475	$60,915	$313,405
7	10	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2	$724,375	$415,799	39	-42.6%	$26,422,055	$53,638	$3,408,475

Don't be fooled by that increase for Star Wars 7. It should have increased by 30-40% this weekend even with the new openers since it had 3 days of holidays (Christmas, December 26 and Sunday) and Christmas Eve which sees pretty good admissions as well. That being said, it is already in the top 25 of all time in 1.5 weeks. Legs will be a huge issue with the holidays coming to an end and its drops increasing every day this week so far. Excellent for Ip Man 3. It is the 2nd highest opening weekend by a local release ever behind Kung Fu Hustle's 3.2m. 7m is locked. The Peanuts Movie also had something to celebrate as well. Peanuts OW is the biggest Blue Sky OW outside of Ice Age 3 & 4 and is the highest animated OW during the Christmas period. The Little Prince did quite well with it being a source material from a foreign language. Awareness was an issue but it had one of the top 5 Christmas animated OW's ever. Anniversary had strong sneak previews. It will have banked $750,000 in previews before its released officially on New Year's Eve. Yo-Kai Watch was the weak link and was pushed aside in favor of Peanuts/The Little Prince.

	Tuesday adm.				December 29
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	9,218	30,564	+231.6%	+5.2%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	33,947	22,527	-33.6%	+6.6%
3	The Peanuts Movie	6,668	10,201	+53.0%	+14.4%
4	The Little Prince	--	8,301	--	+12.5%
5	Anniversary	--	7,423	--	+13.8%
6	Yo-Kai Watch	--	3,048	--	+0.5%
7	Ten Years	715	868	+21.4%	+1.5%
8	Burnt	937	762	-18.7%	+7.8%
9	Initiation Love	--	451	--	+14.8%
10	Port of Call	880	425	-51.7%	--

Good for Ip Man 3. Pretty bad drop for Star Wars despite this Tuesday being in the holiday period still. Decent for Peanuts. Not looking good for The Little Prince. Great for Anniversary. Ouch for Yo-Kai Watch. Superb for Ten Years.

	Wednesday adm.	(so far)			December 30
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	17,377	10,291	-40.8%	-16.7%
2	Ip Man 3	2,020	7,400	+266.3%	-21.9%
3	The Peanuts Movie	3,529	4,197	+18.9%	-15.4%
4	The Little Prince	1,163	2,753	+136.7%	-15.3%
5	Anniversary	993	1,473	+48.3%	-8.1%
6	Yo-Kai Watch	--	1,326	--	-26.9%
7	Ten Years	359	825	+129.8%	+6.9%
8	Burnt	212	133	-37.3%	-82.8%
9	Initiation Love	--	128	--	--
10	Go Lala Go 2	--	121	--	-12.9%

41% drop now. Yikes. Harsh drop for Ip Man 3. Ok for Peanuts. Really bad for Little Prince and Yo-Kai Watch. Great for Anniversary. Wow for Ten Years.

Thursday schedules

Sherlock Holmes: An Abominable Bride will premiere on January 2. These schedules below are not going to last through the entire weekend.

Broadway/AMC

Hollywood
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Anniversary - 8 showings	Ip Man 3 - 13 showings (▲ 12)	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Joy - 3 showings	The Peanuts Movie (Can.) - 6 showings (=)
	The Little Prince (Can.) - 6 showings (▼ 7)
	Yo-Kai Watch - 2 showings (▼ 3)
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D - 1 showing (▼ 2)
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 6 showings (▼ 9)

Anniversary will begin with full day showings on the 2nd biggest screen at 6/7 locations. Joy will start with half day showings at 10 locations. Pre-sales for Anniversary have been very good though not as good as Ip Man 3's. Joy hasn't been doing that well and will see its showtimes cut down on Friday. On Saturday, Sherlock Holmes will begin with 3/4 showtimes at theaters that have already released the entire weekend schedules.

Star Wars 7 will move from 2 screens to 1 or will move into smaller houses with full day showtimes. Early scheduling for Saturday/Sunday sees Star Wars get slashed to 4 or 5 showtimes. Ip Man 3 will remain stable or increase showtimes/screen size especially in last week's pesky theaters like Palace IFC/Cyberport. Most theaters will give it 2 screens. Early scheduling for Saturday/Sunday sees it still get full day showtimes in the biggest screen. The Little Prince will continue to get support from these 2 theater chains. It will have full day showtimes almost everywhere. Peanuts will have a mixed bag. Some will schedule it for the whole day while others will cut it down to half day. Yo-Kai Watch will see showtimes crash to just 2.

UA

Cine Moko
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Anniversary - 6 showings	Ip Man 3 - 17 showings (▲ 9)	The Little Prince (3D Can.)
	The Peanuts Movie (3D Can.) - 2 showings (▼ 4)	The Little Prince (Can.)
	The Peanuts Movie (Can.) - 1 showing (▲ 0)	The Little Prince (3D Eng.)
	The Peanuts Movie (3D Eng.) - 1 showing (▲ 0)	Yo-Kai Watch
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D Atmos - 1 showing (▲ 0)
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D - 5 showings (▼ 9)
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 2 showings (▲ 0)

Anniversary will start on 3-6 showings at most UA theaters. Pre-sales are quite good. Joy will be on 1 or 2 less UA theaters but will have bigger screens than Anniversary. Ten Years will debut in 2 UA theaters. Pre-sales are fantastic with even midnights getting a lot of action.

After last week's scheduling debacle, Ip Man 3 will run slightly freer this week. Star Wars 7 will still lock down the biggest screen through Jan. 3 but theaters are already starting to feel the itch. One theater took down pre-selling for Star Wars on New Year's Day and gave the night shows on the biggest screen to Ip Man 3 instead. The rest will add another screen to Ip Man 3 to compensate for their big mistake of reserving the biggest screen for Star Wars through the new year. Star Wars, meanwhile, has had pre-selling for this weekend run more than a week now and theaters are reluctant to add anymore showtimes due to slow pre-selling. Some theaters will still add a couple of showtimes but nothing drastic. Peanuts will still have 4-6 showtimes at UA though The Little Prince wasn't so lucky. It will exit some theaters while getting squashed at others. Those that remain will show it once or twice a day. Yo-Kai Watch will leave theaters here.

MCL

STAR Cinema
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Anniversary - 6 showings	Ip Man 3 - 11 showings (▲ 9)	The Peanuts Movie (Can.)
The Boy and the Beast (Jap.) - 2 showings	The Peanuts Movie (Eng.) - 6 showings (▲ 4)	The Little Prince (Can.)
The Boy and the Beast (Can.) - 1 showing	The Little Prince (Eng.) - 2 showings (▲ 1)
Joy - 5 showings	Yo-Kai Watch - 5 showings (▼ 8)
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Eng.) - 7 showings (▼ 9)

Anniversary will begin on the 3rd or 4th biggest screen here but will have full day showtimes. Joy gets half day showtimes. The Boy and the Beast will play on 2-3 showtimes.

Yo-Kai Watch is still getting major support from this theater chain with it on 5 showtimes almost everywhere before 6 PM. Ip Man 3 will increase showtimes at a couple of locations or will remain steady or lose 1 or showtimes at the remaining theaters. The GRAND will increase Ip Man 3's showtimes on Thursday to 14 then 15 on Friday. Star Wars will get 5-7 showtimes on the 2nd or 3rd biggest screen.

GH

Whampoa
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Anniversary - 8 showings	Ip Man 3 - 8 showings (▲ 7)
	The Peanuts Movie (Can.) - 3 showings (▼ 5)
	The Little Prince (Can.) - 3 showings (=)
	Yo-Kai Watch - 2 showings (▼ 4)
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 7 showings (▲ 5)

Anniversary will get the biggest screen at GH. Joy gets half day showtimes on the 3rd or 4th biggest screen.

Ip Man 3, Star Wars 7 will remain fairly stable from Wednesday's schedules. Peanuts/The Little Prince will fight behind those 2. Yo-Kai Watch will get some showtimes here.

Newport

Ip Man 3 moves into the biggest theater at all locations with full day showtimes. Anniversary gets the other screen with almost full day showtimes. Star Wars 7 crashes and burns with only 1 showtime (the one that Anniversary does not get). If there's a 3rd screen, Star Wars receives the smallest of the 3.

Independent theaters

Ip Man 3 is on the biggest theaters. At Ip Man 3's home turf, it gets 29 showtimes. Paris London Milano New York theater will still push Ip Man 3 on almost 2 screens. Anniversary gets 1 screen at Paris. Star Wars gets almost 1 screen. The rest will be dispersed among Peanuts/Little Prince/Yo Kai Watch. At Metroplex, Ip Man 3 gets the biggest screen over Star Wars. Anniversary gets full day showtimes. Star Wars is still playing well here with about 15 showtimes.

There will be sneaks scattered around town this weekend with Concussion, Secret in their Eyes, Steve Jobs getting the most play.

New Year's Eve pre-sales at Palace APM for the expected top 3

Palace APM
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	(all v.)				Ip Man 3					Anniversary
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Dec. 31	9:05 AM	33	98	33.67%	Dec. 31	9:15 AM	43	167	25.75%	Dec. 31	11:20 AM	27	167	16.17%
	11:00 AM	32	114	28.07%		10:40 AM	42	286	14.69%		1:25 PM	6	167	3.59%
	1:25 PM	16	98	16.33%		2:30 PM	38	286	13.29%		3:30 PM	37	167	22.16%
	3:55 PM	31	98	31.63%		3:55 PM	10	98	10.20%		5:35 PM	63	167	37.72%
	5:30 PM	33	114	28.95%		4:30 PM	42	286	14.69%		7:40 PM	97	167	58.08%
	7:50 PM	68	112	60.71%		5:55 PM	13	98	13.27%		9:45 PM	115	167	68.86%
	10:00 PM	42	114	36.84%		6:30 PM	81	286	28.32%		11:55 PM	12	167	7.19%
						7:55 PM	45	98	45.92%
						8:30 PM	166	286	58.04%
						9:55 PM	56	98	57.14%
						10:35 PM	103	286	36.01%
						12:35 AM	37	286	12.94%
Total		255	748	34.09%	Total		676	2561	26.40%	Total		357	1169	30.54%

Drops from Christmas Eve pre-sales: -43.5% Star Wars 7, -35% for Ip Man 3.

Decent for Ip Man 3 though that drop is slightly concerning. Star Wars 7's drop is troublesome given that Saturday will drop like a rock from last Saturday's admissions. It still has not hit 50% walk-ins in final admissions on any dey yet which is very worrisome for this week. Pretty good or Anniversary but usually these movies are very frontloaded so it'll be interesting to see how this holds up once Sherlock enters on Saturday.

So SW7 is looking at 50% decrease this weekend?

Worse. Most likely 60-65%. Drops will grow larger as the weekend progresses with Sherlock Holmes opening on Saturday.

	Wednesday adm.				December 30
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	9,504	25,092	+164.0%	-17.9%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	29,715	18,751	-36.9%	-16.8%
3	The Peanuts Movie	7,046	8,267	+17.3%	-19.0%
4	Anniversary	2,937	6,991	+138.0%	-5.8%
5	The Little Prince	3,004	6,932	+130.8%	-16.5%
6	Yo-Kai Watch	--	2,541	--	-16.6%
7	Ten Years	705	871	+23.5%	+0.3%
8	Burnt	725	646	-10.9%	-15.2%
9	Initiation Love	679	415	-38.9%	-8.0%
10	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2	854	400	-53.2%	--

Drops from Monday admissions:
The Little Prince -6%
Peanuts Movie -7%
Star Wars 7 -11%
Ip Man 3 -14%

Not good for Ip Man 3. It is down 4,000 admissions from Monday. Star Wars 7 might have had a resurgence on Wednesday due to a handful of places cutting its showtimes significantly on Thursday. Harsh for Peanuts. The Little Prince is closing the gap from about 1,600 on Monday to 1,300 on Wednesday. Excellent for Anniversary. Terrible for Yo-Kai Watch. Great for Ten Years.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)			December 31
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	28,064	19,305	-31.2%	+160.9%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	28,227	13,883	-50.8%	+34.9%
3	Anniversary	7,412	9,937	+34.1%	+574.6%
4	The Peanuts Movie	10,089	5,909	-41.4%	+40.8%
5	Joy	--	5,275	--	--
6	The Little Prince	11,079	4,832	-56.4%	+75.5%
7	Yo-Kai Watch	5,629	1,286	-77.2%	-3.0%
8	Ten Years	647	1,087	+68.0%	+31.8%
9	Initiation Love	743	402	-45.9%	+214.1%
10	Burnt	288	254	-11.8%	+91.0%

Very good for Ip Man 3. It should be able to increase from Christmas Eve in admissions. Bad for Star Wars. Only a 35% increase from Wednesday's pre-sales and the 2nd weakest increase of the top 10 from yesterday's pre-sales. It is aiming for 23-24k today. Good for Anniversary though heavy pre-sales are limited to night time shows. There are still plenty of seats available in the afternoon. Decent hold for Peanuts though the trend the last few days is concerning. Now the gap between it and The Little Prince is down to 1,100 admissions. There was no joy on New Year's Eve for Joy. Its opening day pre-sale admissions were the lowest of any wide release opener the past 2 weeks. Troubling for The Little Prince. Abysmal for Yo-Kai Watch, the only holdover in the top 10 to decrease from Wednesday's pre-sales. Excellent for Ten Years.

Drops for all holdovers will increase on Saturday/Sunday with the holiday period winding down.

Hmm 60%-65% would be bad for SW7.

BTW I did find out and Ip Man 3 did open lower than Ip Man 2 (but over long weekend it did WAY more $1.84m) that too December vs summer opening. The WoM and legs have been good buoyed by holidays so it should do more than Ip Man 2's $3.3m USD

Thanks for the update, Jack! Nice to hear that Ip Man 3 is doing well in other Asian territories.

4 PM Update: Ip Man 3 is well out in front with 33k admissions. It will increase from last Thursday's opening day admissions. Star Wars 7 is just below 21,000 right now and is looking at 23-25k for today. Anniversary has been behind Star Wars 7 all day and is looking at about 20,000 admissions for the day barring a last minute rush tonight. Mixed reviews have come in so far with Anniversary sitting at 3.6/5 from 31 reviews. In the battle of animated films, Peanuts is closing in on 10k while The Little Prince is nearing 8,500. Peanuts is looking at 11-12k today while The Little Prince is aiming for 10-10.5k. Joy has really struggled during the day, falling behind The Little Prince. It is going for 10k admissions as well. Reviews are good with a 4.1/5 so far.

MCL Cinemas just joined the list of arthouse/indie theaters and added shows for Ten Years starting January 7.

http://www.mclcinema.com/visMovieSelect.aspx?visSearchBy=mov&visLang=2&visMovieName=Ten+Years

Ip Man 3 is getting polarizing reviews. While some praise it for the action choreography and the added dimension of the title character as a family man, more slam it for the weak free-of-historical-context script and superhero-rization of Ip Man, and the cheap demonization of non-Chinese as corrupt.

Ip Man 2 is pretty bad, imo. Can this be worse?

It looks like the film appeals to the non-tech-savvy older generation of HKers (and maybe tourists from China) as I see social media reactions have been light.

Ip Man 3 is getting good to very good reviews from users and that's all that matters. Some have called Ip Man 3 the best of the series. All in all it's a crowd pleaser and playing right to its audience, martial arts fans young and old.

Happy New Year, everyone!

	Thursday				December 31
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	40,617	40,660	+0.1%	+62.0%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	42,342	24,289	-42.6%	+29.5%
3	Anniversary	10,602	18,468	+74.2%	+164.2%
4	The Peanuts Movie	14,110	10,363	-26.6%	+25.4%
5	The Little Prince	15,546	9,485	-39.0%	+36.8%
6	Joy	--	9,325	--
7	Yo-Kai Watch	7,150	2,011	-71.9%	-20.9%
8	Ten Years	832	1,156	+38.9%	+32.7%
9	Initiation Love	1,296	638	-50.8%	+53.7%
10	Burnt	406	634	+56.2%	-1.9%

Average admissions per showing
Ip Man 3: 95 on 425 showings (includes Thursday midnights, 4DX)
Star Wars 7: 75 on 321 showings (includes Thursday midnights, Atmos, IMAX, 2D and 3D versions, 4DX)
Anniversary: 85 on 215 showings (includes Thursday midnights)

Superb for Ip Man 3. Bad hold for Star Wars 7. Not that great for Anniversary. Early reviews must have sucked the life of its walk ups because this type of movie should do well with walk-ins too. Opening day score is a 3.8/5. Good hold for Peanuts. Bad for The Little Prince. Horrible for Joy. It'll be interesting to see if it's 4.4 from opening day user reviews will make a dent at the box office. Atrocious for Yo-Kai Watch. Very good for Ten Years. Terrible for Initiation Love. Great hold for Burnt.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			January 1
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	34,652	22,948	-33.8%	+18.9%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	37,201	18,177	-51.1%	+30.9%
3	The Peanuts Movie	13,332	9,047	-32.1%	+53.1%
4	Anniversary	7,016	7,821	+11.5%	-21.3%
5	The Little Prince	12,202	5,548	-54.5%	+14.8%
6	Joy	--	5,234	--	-0.8%
7	Yo-Kai Watch	7,559	2,741	-63.7%	+113.1%
8	Ten Years	604	1,327	+119.7%	+22.1%
9	Steve Jobs	--	429	--	--
10	Secret In Their Eyes	--	342	--	--

Very good for Ip Man 3. Bad but not outright disastrous for Star Wars. Nice hold by Peanuts. Anniversary was frontloaded. Bad reviews early on did not help either. Scary hold for The Little Prince. Ouch for Joy. Funnily enough, only the 2 new openers in the top 10 fell on New Year's Day. Awful for Yo-Kai Watch. Fantastic for Ten Years. Steve Jobs and Secret in Their Eyes sneak previews made the top 10.

There is a generation gap re. the reception to Ip Man 3. Look through fb and Golden forums for more evidence.

If you have mentioned Anniversary being advertised as the movie marking the 10th anniversary of the first movie in the series of popular triangular romance dramedies directed by Patrick Yip, its frontloading would have made more sense.

Besides Steve Jobs and Secret in Their Eyes, Concussion, 100 Yen Love, and Dheepan are also doing previews. Adding Sherlock, Daddy's Home and The 33 to the mix, next week will be interesting.

Joy is not doing so bad as it's the only movie in the top 7 not being a well-known franchise.

That only would have made sense if Anniversary had no sneaks. Since Joy also decreased from its New Year's Eve pre-sales, it is obvious that New Year's Eve is a major factor in its pre-sales and that upfront demand is spent on that day.

The night holiday and the bad reviews early on had more to do with its frontloadedness on New Year's Day than any sequel rush factor. That would have been mostly spent on sneaks. Remember that Anniversary had Saturday/Sunday sneaks on Star Wars opening weekend and week long sneaks beginning on December 23. That's 10 days of sneaks. 8 day admissions sneaks total without Saturday/Sunday SW7 OW sneaks was 69,695. Nearly 70,000 admissions from 8 days of previews would have taken most if not almost all of the sequel rush factor away.

Joy is not doing well at all. It had several bankable stars including Robert De Niro, fresh from one of the biggest hits of the year, and mainstays like Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. Unlike Silver Linings Playbook, which surprised in 2013 after having to wait 3 months after the US release, a crappy distributor in HK, only two theater chains participating the whole run and a semi-wide release, Joy has a much better distributor in Fox, a wide release of more than 25 theaters participating, near day-and-date release with US, additional starpower from De Niro vs. the De Niro from the end of 2012-beginning of 2013, goodwill from Silver Linings Playbook, an easier sell with the movie and 2015 inflation costs plus a holiday, it may only make marginal more than SLP's OW this weekend. It had many factors that should have helped it so to debut outside the top 5 in admissions on New Year's Eve is not good news.

3 PM update: Films are having all sorts of trouble today.

Holdover Drops from Christmas Day admissions (so far)

Ip Man 3: -34.7%
Star Wars 7: -54.3%
Peanuts Movie: -31.6%
The Little Prince: -54.7%

From these holdovers, Peanuts and Ip Man 3 are doing quite well. Both are looking at drops in the -15% to -20% range from Christmas. Star Wars 7 should be able to get under 50% today, around a -47% fall. The Little Prince is doing terrible business. It should decline over -50% today.

Anniversary, meanwhile, just now surpassed its sneak admissions from last week and is headed for a big decline from New Year's Eve.

Joy does not look good either and is aiming for only a little above 10,000 today.

The Revenant will debut Friday, January 8. It is unusual to open a film on Friday.

Steve Jobs will not officially open until January 14. So another week of sneaks to build WOM.

No plan for Secret in Their Eyes to go wide. It is currently playing seven shows a day.

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride is doing very well in presales Saturday, Jan 2. It is now ahead of Ip Man 3 and Star Wars 7 in admission.

		Thursday Actuals						December 31
LW	TW	Movie	Last Thu. (USD)	Thu. (USD)	% chg	Theaters	Days	Total
2	1	Ip Man 3	$399,947	$465,331	+16.3%	42	8	$4,047,480
1	2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$593,470	$322,251	-45.7%	43	15	$8,378,542
5	3	Anniversary	$96,761	$232,021	+139.8%	35	1	$1,031,205
3	4	The Peanuts Movie	$174,170	$109,565	-37.1%	37	8	$1,598,368
4	5	The Little Prince	$145,000	$103,120	-28.9%	33	8	$1,160,105
--	6	Joy	--	$96,675	--	26	1	$96,675

Some additional info + others
Ip Man 3: $465,331 on almost 46k admits, avg 106 per showing
Star Wars 7: $322,251 on almost 21k admits, avg 62 per showing (2D represented more than 50% share on NYE)
Anniversary: $232,021 on around 22k admits, avg over 100 per showing
Peanuts: $109,565 on 8,800 admits, avg almost 50 per showing
Little Prince: $103,120 on 9,200 admits
Joy: $96,675 on more than 9,600 admits, avg about 73 per showing

Yo-Kai Watch: more than 2,000 admits, avg about 32 per showing
The Boy and the Beast: about 500 admissions, avg about 26 per showing
Ten Years: $12,890/$103,120, avg 100 per showing

That's a big discrepancy between the admissions site and what the blog is reporting. Ip Man 3 is nearly 6,000 admissions up from the adm. site and down 3,000 from it with Star Wars 7. I do know that a couple of IMAX theaters' admissions are being added in twice on the adm. site. These would have an effect from 3,000-5,000 admissions depending on capacity filled. Anyway, Star Wars 7 drops to #3 in admissions and Joy ends up ahead of both Hollywood animated films. Ten Years is doing really well.

Wonderful for Ip Man 3. It will pass 5m by this weekend, closing in on Ip Man 2's total. Star Wars had an iffy hold though 9m will happen by Sunday. That is much better for Anniversary. Peanuts had a good hold. Big surprise from Little Prince in gross. Pretty bad for Joy.

	Friday				January 1
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	54,982	48,328	-12.1%	+18.9%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	54,635	30,946	-43.4%	+27.4%
3	Anniversary	12,425	18,051	+45.3%	-2.3%
4	The Peanuts Movie	19,500	15,041	-22.9%	+45.1%
5	Joy	--	10,863	--	+16.5%
6	The Little Prince	18,232	10,356	-43.2%	+9.2%
7	Yo-Kai Watch	9,539	3,769	-60.5%	+87.4%
8	Ten Years	718	1,509	+110.2%	+30.5%
9	Secret In Their Eyes	--	758	--	--
10	Steve Jobs	--	738	--	--

Most films had excellent late afternoon, early evening ticket sales which saw drops boosted. Excellent hold for Ip Man 3. Ok for Star Wars 7. Anniversary did well to come back from a big drop in pre-sales. Strong for Peanuts. Joy is still not doing very well. Terrible for The Little Prince. Despite a 87% bump from NYE, that is still horrible for Yo-Kai Watch. Very good for Ten Years.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			January 2
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	18,308	--	--
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	31,368	12,342	-60.7%	-32.1%
3	Ip Man 3	32,179	12,127	-62.3%	-47.2%
4	The Peanuts Movie	13,259	4,503	-66.0%	-50.2%
5	Anniversary	5,633	3,676	-34.7%	-53.0%
6	Joy	--	2,908	--	-44.4%
7	The Little Prince	8,931	2,817	-68.5%	-49.2%
8	Ten Years	586	1,420	+142.3%	+7.0%
9	Yo-Kai Watch	6,413	1,323	-79.4%	-51.7%
10	Secret In Their Eyes	--	246	--	-28.1%

Excellent opening day pre-sales for Sherlock. Star Wars 7 looks to be fighting back though its week-to-week hold is bad. Weak for Ip Man 3. It seems that holidays bring out the pre-sales but every other day it struggles in pre-selling. Horrible for Peanuts and Anniversary. Joy seems to be picking up steam. Awful for THe Little Prince. Superb for Ten Years, the only film in the top 10 to increase. Disaster for Yo-Kai Watch.

	Saturday				January 2
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	55,219	33,595	-39.2%	-30.5%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	27,116	--	--
3	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	48,360	23,884	-50.6%	-22.8%
4	Anniversary	12,629	12,903	+2.2%	-28.5%
5	The Peanuts Movie	18,145	8,127	-55.2%	-46.0%
6	Joy	--	7,605	--	-30.0%
7	The Little Prince	15,244	6,740	-55.8%	-34.9%
8	Yo-Kai Watch	8,135	2,020	-75.2%	-46.4%
9	Ten Years	715	1,660	+132.2%	+10.0%
10	Steve Jobs	--	525	--	-28.9%

Very good hold for Ip Man 3. It was the only wide holdover to fall less than 50% on Saturday and that is with last Saturday being a holiday and Sherlock opening to 28,000 admissions. Though it fell 30% from Friday, keep in mind that Saturday is not a holiday. Saturdays are a working day for most adults. Good start for Sherlock but you can already tell it's going to be very frontloaded. Pre-sales represented a staunch 68% of its admissions on Saturday. Decent hold for Star Wars. This is the first hold I can say that is not disappointing. It seems to do better on non-holidays or working days because its holiday drops have been disappointing. It also had the best hold of any semi-wide release or above. Not that good for Anniversary. It already dropped on the holiday Friday so to drop another 29% is a sign that bad word of mouth is spreading. Animated movies were the hardest hit on Saturday. Peanuts fell a whopping 46% after the holiday while The Little Prince did slightly better but only to make up for its lackluster holiday bump. Horrible for Joy.

	Weekend Projections			December 31
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Ip Man 3	$1,740,000	-22.8%	$5,320,000
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$1,300,000	-52.0%	$9,355,000
3	Anniversary	$770,000	+41.2%	$1,570,000
4	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	$570,000		$570,000
5	The Peanuts Movie	$450,000	-45.4%	$1,935,000

Very good hold for Ip Man 3. It passes 5m and will pass Ip Man 2 on Tuesday at the latest. The next few weeks don't inspire much confidence that anything can surpass Ip Man 3 so it should be able to hold down the mantle until either the January 21/28 weekend. Next weekend will decide how it will end its run. If it posts a weak hold, it will miss beating Kung Fu Hustle but if it has a stellar post New Year's weekend, this will break 8m and could challenge 9m or 10m. Judging from what we've seen this weekend so far, it seems Ip Man 3 will follow the latter's path. Star Wars had underwhelming holiday holds but saw good holds on non-holidays to push it past 9m. It will enter the 10m ranks by next week. Anniversary had powerful sneaks but its opening weekend was a little underwhelming. Weak word of mouth has circulated and has already begun to affect its admissions. Sherlock opened on Saturday and it will rank #4 this weekend. Good hold for Peanuts with the loss of the Saturday holiday this weekend.

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			January 3
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	13,110	--	-28.4%
2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	24,812	11,557	-53.4%	-6.4%
3	Ip Man 3	25,324	10,616	-58.1%	-12.5%
4	The Peanuts Movie	11,115	4,031	-63.7%	-10.5%
5	Anniversary	3,391	3,037	-10.4%	-17.4%
6	The Little Prince	6,340	2,580	-59.3%	-8.4%
7	Joy	--	2,086	--	-28.3%
8	Yo-Kai Watch	4,937	1,594	-67.7%	12.3%
9	Ten Years	661	822	+24.4%	-37.9%
10	Secret In Their Eyes	--	204	--	-17.1%

Much weaker for Sherlock. Better for Star Wars. Ok for Ip Man 3.

Dec. 31 - Jan. 2 Weekend Estimates (- Sunday, all numbers are Saturday estimates/total estimates)

1. Ip Man 3 - $359,632/$4,885,334
2. Star Wars 7 - $9,113,276
3. Sherlock: An Abominable Bride - $257,801
4. Anniversary - $154,680/$1,379,237
Peanuts Movie - $1,830,389
The Little Prince - $1,289,006
Joy - $64,450/$257,801
Ten Years - $135,345

If these estimates turn out to be true, Sherlock won't be making $500,000 this weekend and Joy will open lower than Silver Linings Playbook's OW without sneaks.

That seems to be a good hold for SW7 in the end.