Ahh. Thanks for clarifying. I'm looking forward to the updates on the film this week.

So am I. I'm a huge fan of Nodame Cantabile -- watched the anime (starting the third season), live action, and did read the manga for a short period. I'm actually debating whether to see this or not in theaters. The only reason that is holding me back are the subtitles. I'm worried that they will suck and I won't get the true meaning of what the character is saying/doing.

New Releases					March 4, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	Theater Count	# Showings (OD)	Comment
Alice in Wonderland	US	IIA	38	270	Very Wide
Nodame Cantabile	Japan	I	26	119	Wide
Crazy Heart	US	IIB	4	19	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


Crazy Heart



Alice in Wonderland



Nodame Cantabile

Weekend of Feb. 25-28, 2010:

1 1 72 ga cho hak (72 Tenants of Prosperity) Intercontinental $581,584 -50.7% 38 -3 $15,305 $3,975,607 3
2 2 Avatar Fox $358,893 -31.8% 16 -1 $22,431 $21,111,906 11
3 N Up in the Air Intercontinental $293,069 - 24 - $12,211 $293,069 1
4 N Nine Intercontinental $182,663 - 22 - $8,303 $182,663 1
5 N Little Big Soldier Lark $141,117 - 33 - $4,276 $141,117 1
6 3 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Fox $116,852 -77.1% 26 -8 $4,494 $1,929,593 3
7 4 All's Well Ends Well 2010 Newport $75,255 -82.7% 28 -11 $2,688 $1,949,136 3
8 9 Chuen sing yit luen - yit lat lat (Hot Summer Days) Fox $71,799 -55.3% 24 -5 $2,992 $364,368 2
9 7 The Wolfman EDKO $60,010 -73.8% 24 -2 $2,500 $382,510 2
10 8 Gam yee wai (14 Blades) Gala $57,709 -73.0% 19 -12 $3,037 $930,396 3
11 6 Valentine's Day WB $44,573 -82.6% 16 -18 $2,786 $1,158,862 3
12 13 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire EDKO $40,122 +627.6% 5 +4 $8,024 $86,801 1
13 5 Su Qi-Er (True Legend) EDKO $39,269 -84.8% 14 -23 $2,805 $1,223,142 3
14 10 The Princess and the Frog Disney $27,388 -81.8% 11 -22 $2,490 $540,448 3
15 N The Blind Side WB $24,859 - 6 - $4,143 $24,859 1
16 N Choi san dau (Here Comes Fortune) Newport $12,332 - 24 - $514 $12,332 1
17 14 Meitantei Conan: Shikkoku No Chaser (Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser) n/a $11,025 +222.6% 8 +3 $1,378 $14,851 2
18 11 Pleasant Goat & Big Bad Wolf 2 Intercontinental $7,577 -90.1% 4 -24 $1,894 $282,343 3
19 12 Kûki ningyô (Air Doll) EDKO $6,123 -61.8% 1 - $6,123 $79,121 4
20 16 An Education Sony $1,685 -40.4% 1 - $1,685 $69,255 6
21 17 KJ: Music and Life n/a $1,351 -41.1% 1 - $1,351 $80,016 12

Obviously everything was deflated due to last weekend's Thursday and Friday holidays.

Good hold for 72 Tenants. Good word-of-mouth is showing now.

Avatar had another solid weekend. If you compare this drop to the other holdovers, it's great but IMAX is really inflating its totals. Still, I guess business is business, right? It will be losing the smaller IMAX screen of the two to Alice so that right there is about a 25% drop next weekend.

Up in the Air had a strong opening. Once again, this movie played well in the business districts as it had near sellouts during peak times.

Nine had a good marketing push that propelled it to an $8,000+ PTA.

Given every opportunity to succeed, Little Big Soldier did poorly. It had 1/3 more screens than Nine and barely did half of Nine's PTA.

Looks like the fairytale box office is over for Percy Jackson. It came as no surprise though as it was overtaken by 72 Tenants in some areas and theaters had to make room for the big 3 (4 for some) new movies this week. It also looks like I misjudged Percy not making 2 million. Whoops.

Not bad for Hot Summer Days. It's not doing great but it's not doing poorly either.

Audiences pretty much deserted Wolfman last week when it opened and they continued to stay away from it this week.

In the race between Valentine's Day and True Legend, Valentine's Day finally has the upper-hand as it made more money and is occupying more screens than True Legend...but it's PTA is below True Legend?! Shocking.

Ok for Precious. It didn't exactly sell-out the primetime showings but more like 50-80%. I think the subject matter really drove people away from seeing it as well.

Princess and the Frog had a disastrous showing. It didn't have as many showtimes but that's a terrible drop no matter how you cut it.

The Blind Side lagged behind every new opener (excluding Here Comes Fortune) but it didn't help that it was not given the better time showings like 7 PM (on a Friday) when it's considered an optimal time to watch it.

Speaking of Here Comes Fortune, $514 PTA? Really?

Box office was pretty boring this week. Holidays are gone, no major release. Bring on Alice.

This week's openers:

Alice in Wonderland (this has been getting 3 screens in some places. WOW.)
Crazy Heart
Nodame Cantabile
Echoes of the Rainbow (I have seen a few showtimes for this -- don't know if this is limited or wide)

Thursday Admission Updates (as of 3:00 am HKT)

1. Alice in Wonderland (3D) 19,040
2. Nodame Cantabile 3,069
3. Up in the Air 2,247
4. Avatar (3D) 2,004
5. 72 Tenants 1,343

This chart is compiled from ticket sales reports from about 80% of the theaters in Hong Kong.

I am not sure Alice's number includes 3D only. With only 3D screens reported, its admission is more than 6 times that of Nodame Cantabile. Considering the number of showings for Alice is only about 2.3 times that for Nodame, that's really good for Alice.

is there any data for Avatar's opening day, how does it compare?

This is the kind of films that Hong Kong people like but the local market seldom offers.




It fails miserably there even by comparing it to Jacky Chan's low-grossing Hollywood films.




The rule of horror frontloadedness also applies to Hong Kong.




It is interesting two movies with so much similarity and contrast open in the same week. Precious tells a dark, inward-looking tale of the black community while The Blind Side tells a clean, outward-looking racial story from the Southern whites' perspective. It looks like Hong Kongers prefer a hellish dark tale over an over-sweetened inspirational story. Precious is hanging on to its screens while the number of showings drops for The Blind Side.




It's made for the mainland market. No surprise there.

Yes, there is.

Avatar sold about 21,800 tickets when it opened December 17. It made HK$2,600,000 that day.

Notice that the average ticket price for Avatar is about 35% higher than that for Alice due to film length surcharge.

The tickets for Avatar were considerably more expensive.

I'm gonna quote i.hope here:



Most places are charging $30 more (I'm assuming that is 35%) for Avatar due to its long run time.

I'm going to assume that Alice sold more tickets than Avatar because of its shorter run time which would allow more people to watch it during periods of heavy activity (for example, Alice is being given 3 showtimes in the morning because of HUGE demand). People love to watch movies but they will also find ways to cut down on the expenses so that's why in Hong Kong, it is normal to see sellout crowds in the mornings on weekends but have theaters only 50% full during peak times like 3 PM on a Saturday.

Despite the longer running time it's a ridiculous additional charge. Especially considering Avatar isn't THAT long. It's comfortably under three hours. It's in the range most big blockbusters today are.
Here are some examples:

200 min. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
183 min. Pearl Harbor
179 min. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
178 min. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowsihp of the Rings
187 min. King Kong
168 min. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
168 min. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
162 min. Avatar
161 min. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
158 min. 2012
155 min. Gladiator
154 min. Superman Returns
153 min. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
153 min. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
153 min. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
151 min. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
150 min. The Dark Knight
144 min. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Here they also have higher ticket prices for movies that are longer (usually above 150 min.) but the price difference is like 40 cents. In Hong Kong Avatar tickets were like $4 dollars more expensive than the tickets for Alice. Ridiculous. If the same thing happened in the bigger territories no wonder Avatar earned as much as it did.

Yeah, they also charge $30 HK for the 3D glasses and these glasses are old school, dorky and plain uncomfortable.

To shed some light on how ticket prices are charged here, I'll give a breakdown of the prices they charge for adults in the most expensive theater -- all prices in HKD:

New Releases (2D):

$45 - Morning shows (new release)
$50 - Cheap Tuesdays (new release) / Morning shows (blockbuster -- not sure)
$60? - Cheap Tuesdays (blockbuster) -- not quite sure about this one
$75 - New Release
$90 - New Blockbuster Release (what they classify as a blockbuster I don't know...to give you an idea, TDK was charged for this price)

3D movies:

$65 - 3D movie (morning shows only)
$75? - 3D movie (Tuesdays only -- After 11:00 AM)
$90 - 3D movie with long(ish) running time (morning shows only)
$100 - 3D movie with long(ish) running time (Tuesdays only -- After 11:00 AM)
$120 - 3D movie
$150 - 3D movie with long(ish) running time

Damn. Movie watching is an expensive adventure in Hong Kong.

The most ridiculous thing went down in Germany when the distributor of Quantum of Solace told to the theatres (I assume it was in the contract) to charge the overlength charge for that (sub-120 minutes) movie. The guy who sold me the ticket said it's ridiculous, but they had to do it. WTF?

I'm glad that in US all movies cost the same price regardless of length, it certainly does explain why a lot of blockbusters have such a bloated runtime and have much higher overseas gross than domestic. Maybe 24 the movie will be the highest grossing overseas movie of all time.

Keep in mind though that the 2 3D theaters that charge those prices are in the business districts of Hong Kong. Other places that charge less are often thought of as being more remote and people won't pay as much to go see a movie there than they would in the business districts.

Also, some IMAX prices:

Avatar -

Smaller IMAX theatre

$100 - 9 AM morning shows
$110 - Tuesdays after the morning show
$140? - Weekdays (this might be $150...going off my memory here)
$150 - Weekends

Bigger IMAX theatre

$120 - Weekend morning shows
$130 - Tuesdays
$160 - Weekdays
$170 - Weekends (includes Friday nights after 6 PM)

The bigger IMAX theatre has a bigger screen and is not as remote as the smaller one.
------------------------------------

Alice in Wonderland

Smaller IMAX theatre

$100 - Morning shows + 12:30 show
$105 - Weekday evenings (includes Friday nights)
$115 - Weekend shows after 12:30 show (includes midnight shows)

Note: This is not fixed. In April, the Friday-Tuesday shows after 12:30 PM are being upped to $115. Strangely enough, Wednesday's shows in the evenings are only $105 while the afternoon show is being reduced to $100.

The surprising thing is that the bigger IMAX theatre is not showing Alice in Wonderland right now. Avatar is still playing strong there. Avatar is being shown up until March 28 (for now) so after this week's drop, it should hold relatively steady for the next few weeks.

I have seen that extra ticket charge only in few countries. Countries that I have known for some time India, Singapore, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia are all charging the same ticket price regardless of the length of the movie

It is about the laws of supply and demand. Prices are driven by the market force. When theater chains are free to set ticket prices, you see vastly different prices in different areas. Whether or not to impose film length surcharge depends on the demand for a partiular film. I don't remember seeing they charge extra dollars for seeing Alexander (2004) and A Very Long Engagement.

More Thursday numbers:

Openers

Alice in Wonderland HK$2,180,000 (328 showings) *No. 1 on the chart

Nodame Cantabile HK$260,000 (123 showings) *No. 2 on the chart

Crazy Heart HK$18,000 (19 showings)

Holdovers

Avatar HK$240,000 (21 showings) *No. 3 on the chart
Compare that to last week's HK$440,000 (33 showings). Its per showing average drops only 14% week-to-week when it loses an IMAX screen which accounted for 30% of the gross last week.

72 Tenants HK$230,000 (161 showings) *No. 4 on the chart

Up in the Air HK$170,000 (106 showings) *No. 5 on the chart

Very impressive for Alice considering that the biggest IMAX screen is still showing Avatar. I wonder if it can make 1.8 M US this weekend...maybe 2 mill.

A note about Alice. I know it's early, but I've been tracking presales for Monday at the 2 most expensive theaters (where these types of movies do well), and it's a ghost land.

That seems like a disappointing start for Nodame Cantabile, but considering it is based on a manga, this is an OK number. Not to mention that you would have had to watch the live action series first before knowing what is going on in this movie. It is probably looking at a $150,000-$200,000 US opening weekend.

As for Crazy Heart, these types of movies just don't seem to attract people here.

Avatar's drop is fantastic considering that the smaller IMAX will take away 25% of last weekend's business. Doing so math, if you combine the loss of the IMAX theatre + 25% loss of business everywhere else, it will still get over $200,000 US.

72 Tenants is still playing very well but it definitely was hurt by the screen allocation this week. It no longer has the 300+ seat theaters to boost its totals.

Good for Up in the Air. Maybe the Oscars coming up is getting people to watch it. (No, I am not one of those people who watched it this week for that reason though.)
------------------------------------------------------
I wonder what the bigger IMAX screen will show after March 28. How To Train Your Dragon comes out April Fools Day. Maybe 3 days of Alice and then How To Train Your Dragon?

Sunday Top 5 Admissions (as of 12:05 am, Monday HKT)

1. Alice in Wonderland (3D English) 66,183
2. Nodame Cantabile 11,733
3. 72 Tenants 8,223
4. Up in the Air 7,614
5. Echoes of the Rainbow (Sneak Peek) 6,651

Avatar (3D) and Alice in Wonderland (3D Cantonese) are close behind with 6,000 each.

(The above report is compiled from admission data from 80% of the cinemas in Hong Kong.)

This week's openers:

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

Some upcoming openers:

April 18

The Lovely Bones

March 25

Fantastic Mr. Fox

April 1

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

April 8

Date Night

April 15

Kick Ass
Future X-Cops

April 1 should be a really interesting week.

Meanwhile, Alice is down to 1 screen per day in some areas and 2 screens (1 screen shared) in others. Up in the Air is a huge casualty as it loses a number of showtimes due to the new openers and the effect of the Oscars.

Weekend of March 4-7, 2010:

1 N Alice in Wonderland (2010) Disney $1,902,019 - 68 - $27,971 $1,902,019 1
2 N Nodame Kantâbire: Saishuu-gakushou - Zenpen Panasia $229,483 - 26 - $8,826 $229,483 1
3 2 Avatar Fox $191,396 -46.7% 13 -3 $14,723 $21,451,030 12
4 1 72 ga cho hak (72 Tenants of Prosperity) Intercontinental $188,490 -67.6% 35 -3 $5,385 $4,324,399 4
5 3 Up in the Air Intercontinental $175,104 -40.3% 26 +2 $6,735 $566,362 2
6 4 Nine Intercontinental $78,274 -57.2% 20 -2 $3,914 $318,949 2
7 5 Little Big Soldier Lark $38,227 -72.9% 18 -15 $2,124 $227,155 2
8 12 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire EDKO $32,602 -18.7% 6 +1 $5,434 $99,648 2
9 6 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Fox $28,329 -75.8% 19 -7 $1,491 $1,994,149 4
10 10 Gam yee wai (14 Blades) Gala $18,539 -67.9% 10 -9 $1,854 $967,736 4
11 7 All's Well Ends Well 2010 Newport $16,945 -77.5% 12 -16 $1,412 $1,991,065 4
12 N Crazy Heart Fox $15,983 - 5 - $3,197 $15,983 1
13 15 The Blind Side WB $14,062 -43.4% 5 -1 $2,812 $50,316 2
14 8 Chuen sing yit luen - yit lat lat (Hot Summer Days) Fox $11,693 -83.7% 13 -11 $899 $403,450 3
15 13 Su Qi-Er (True Legend) EDKO $10,857 -72.4% 7 -7 $1,551 $1,252,810 4
16 11 Valentine's Day WB $4,731 -89.4% 5 -11 $946 $1,177,132 4
17 14 The Princess and the Frog Disney $3,365 -87.7% 4 -7 $841 $545,310 4
18 19 Kûki ningyô (Air Doll) EDKO $1,963 -67.9% 1 - $1,963 $83,760 5
19 9 The Wolfman EDKO $1,573 -97.4% 2 -22 $787 $401,040 3
20 16 Choi san dau (Here Comes Fortune) Newport $1,075 -91.3% 6 -18 $179 $18,529 2
21 21 KJ: Music and Life n/a $846 -37.4% 1 - $846 $81,366 13
22 17 Meitantei Conan: Shikkoku No Chaser (Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser) n/a $379 -96.6% 1 -7 $379 $17,978 3
23 18 Pleasant Goat & Big Bad Wolf 2 Intercontinental $228 -97.0% 1 -3 $228 $282,815 4

Great start for Alice. Biggest opening weekend of 2010! Just over 1.3 mill below what Avatar got in its opening weekend. Its success was definitely buoyed by the 2 versions which Avatar did not have and more showtimes, but it didn't have both IMAX screens that Avatar got and it did not have an extra $30 surcharge for longer running time. Its legs though are another story. It's not going to have the luxury of having 3 screens all to itself. We are already seeing the effects of the new releases as Alice has been cut from 3 screens to 1.5 screens, or from 2 screens to 1. Unfortunately, the Oscars couldn't have come at a worst time for Alice as now all the attention is on The Hurt Locker, Precious, The Blind Side, Crazy Heart and other Oscar winning movies.

Nodame Cantabile opened with a good number. Considering the competition it got from Alice, it held its own here. Its based off a manga which already limits its appeal but the slapstick comedy + romantic and musical feel really brought couples in to see it.

Avatar had a standard drop this week. 23% lost this week was from the one IMAX screen given to Alice so it lost 23% everywhere else. The one IMAX screen it has left should keep it afloat for the next few weeks. It will probably make it to 22 mill but end its run there.

72 Tenants had a huge drop as screens were allocated to make room for Alice.

Never underestimate the power of George Clooney. Up in the Air had a great hold considering it was under siege from other Oscar movies and Alice.

Good thing about great marketing: it brings people in. Bad thing about marketing: you rely on those people to sell it to others. When that doesn't work...well, you're SOL. Sorry, Nine.

Little Big Soldier flailed around like a dead fish. Huge drop. Next week's numbers will be the end for this movie.

Precious had a nice hold. It's been doing mild business over at the 2 business theaters but at one of the other theaters, it has been holding up well.

Percy, 14 Blades, All's Well Ends Well 2010 suffered huge drops. What else is new?

Crazy Heart had a soft opening. It just goes to show...some Oscar movies will not do well here.

The Blind Side had a pretty good hold. It's not outstanding by any means but when you already have a low opening weekend, the best you can do is not to drop hard. I can't help but feel that theater owners are keeping this for the sake of the Oscars. With Sandra's win, it's going to be interesting to see how it holds up next weekend. It has already lost 2 of its screens to other new openers this week so next week's numbers don't look promising, however, I have noticed an uptick in ticket sales with those theaters keeping it.