From Screendaily:

Friday admissions (March 19)

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 13,848 (+9.1%)
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 11,492 (-49.4%)
3. Just Another Pandora's Box - 6,714
4. Shutter Island - 6,125 (+2.5%)
5. The Hurt Locker - 4,100 (-19.2%)

Huge drop for Alice.

Saturday admissions (so far) - March 20

1. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 11,285 (-53.1%)
2. Echoes of the Rainbow - 11,135 (+21.9%)
3. Shutter Island - 3,849 (+2.2%)
4. The Hurt Locker - 3,510 (-25%)
5. Avatar (3D) - 3,264 (-5.9%)

Echoes is really surging ahead. Shutter Island increasing is also a nice surprise.

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There's no stopping Avatar. Its run in IMAX has been extended to April 7. It will be shown evenings while How To Train Your Dragon will occupy morning and afternoon showtimes.

Currently, Avatar's showtimes look like this:

Sunday - March 28: 9:25, 12:30, 3:40, 6:45, 9:50
Monday - March 29: 3:40
Tuesday/Wednesday: No showtimes
Thursday-Wednesday (April 1-7): 2 evening shows

Next week's releases:

When In Rome
The Old Partner (Korea)
The Young Victoria
Love In A Puff
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The White Ribbon
Good

April 1

Crossing Hennessy
Beauty on Duty
Fire of Conscience
Clash of the Titans (3D and 2D?)
How To Train Your Dragon (3D)
Planet 51 (2 versions)
Monga
The Spy Next Door

Some other highlights

Date Night (April 8)
Kick-Ass (April 15)
The Ghost Writer (April 22)
Iron Man 2 (May 7)
Robin Hood (May 14)



Sunday March 21 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 27,186 (-0.6%)
2. Alice in Wonderland - 19,038 (-55.6% from last week, -71.2% from opening Sunday)
3. Shutter Island - 9,516 (-7.8%)
4. Just Another Pandora's Box - 9,386
5. The Hurt Locker - 6,677 (-31.5%)

Ouch for Alice. It really shows how weak the word of mouth is for it here. There was a lot of upfront demand for it...it had more admissions than Avatar opening day but it hasn't sustained the demand that Avatar had. With How To Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans on the way, there is no way around it...the drop is terrible. There was no big competition...Alice really had the screens all to itself, but Echoes came on strong and took some screens away from it.

Alice will probably have a 48% drop in gross but it really needed to have a good hold this week to avoid having its screens slashed the next 2 weeks.

Just amazing for Echoes. I will see it sometime next week. Given all the good reviews it has been getting, this should have strong holds the next 2 weeks even with the screen cuts.

Shutter Island also did great. It benefited from old fashioned word-of-mouth.

The Oscar buzz looks to be wearing off for The Hurt Locker. Still, it has been doing great business here for a limited release.

Going back to Alice for a minute, I have been noticing some really weird spikes in sales recently. At one theater, one showing on Monday at 5:45 has almost the middle section booked while the next day (on Cheap Tuesday) at the same time, only 2 people have bought tickets to see it. Another theatre moved Alice from a smaller theatre to a bigger theatre not because of sales...but because someone called and booked the first four rows in the back. Very weird indeed.

15 films open over the next two weeks! It's guaranteed a bloodbath. The distributors must hate each other.

* I highlighted in yellow the films that I think will do well and in red those I think will flop.

I'm resigned to the fact that distributors don't really care about how well their movies do. They just want their competitors to suffer. Not a bad tactic.

Make that 17 films as Meat Grinder opens this week and Nightmare on Elm Street will be released on April Fool's Day. April Fool's Day indeed...although, if no films were released next week, that would been just as funny. Also, Crossing Hennessy is having special screens starting this Saturday.

I'm not sure how Fire of Conscience will do. I think there's a greater chance though that it will flop especially with the attention focused on Dragon and Titans.

I think Crossing Hennessy might do well. Again, it's a crapshoot but out of the local movies, I really think that Crossing Hennessy will come out on top. Fire of Conscience might do well in certain areas but overall, I think Jacky has more starpower than Leon.

If I'm missing something, I don't really see why Love in a Puff and Fire of Conscience would do well but Crossing Hennessy would not. Did those 2 films win an award or something?

*I will gladly admit that I was wrong if it does turn out that Fire of Conscience and Love in a Puff do well.

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Excuse me while I rant but who is calling the theatres and propping up Alice? Alice will lose a lot of showtimes this week because of less demand but take a look at this:



So Wednesday morning, first three rows were booked. I thought hmm...someone is buying tickets to make sure Alice stays in the theater. But then my suspicions were confirmed when Alice came out on Thursday looking like this:



Now, weekday mornings are typically the second choice for people to buy tickets because it's early in the morning when people have to work. The first choice? Around 7-8 PM on weekdays. That is the most lucrative showtime you can get. So I checked Alice, Thursday night at 7:35 and look at what we have...



It's not happening at just one theatre though.



At Kingswood Ginza, there are no showtimes on Thursday. Also, there's no Wednesday morning show for Alice. Now typically, theater owners will cut off movies completely if no one is buying, unless for some special reason such as Avatar generating huge crowds on weekends. So no showtime on Thursday, then magically there are 2 morning showings of Alice.

And it confirms the same thing...




that someone or a group of people is paying certain theaters money to keep Alice in theaters. Whoever is doing this, please stop. Your money is only going to waste.

Thank you for your attention. You may now resume your normal activities.

April 29 releases:

Iron Man 2 (moved up)
Ip Man 2

Huge battle that weekend. Iron Man 2 will handily win the weekend but it will be interesting to see where Ip Man 2 ends up considering Ip Man finished ahead of Iron Man. I personally can't wait as I loved both films so it is all a matter of watching them before it is out of theaters.

^^ Interesting. The front rows usually are the last ones to fill. Love in the Puff and Fire of Conscience target young people who are the driving force of the box office. HK$4+ million for each is likely. I agree Hennessy will do decent numbers as it is the only release that targets female audiences.

^ Based on history, Ip Man 2 will be bigger than Iron Man 2 in OW.

3/25 Thursday Openers:

New Releases					March 25, 2010
Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings	Platform
Love in a Puff	Hong Kong	III	24	126	Wide
When in Rome	US	IIA	20	107	Wide
The Fantastic Mr. Fox	US	I	10	48	Semi-Wide
Meat Grinder	Thailand	III	8	34	Semi-Wide
The Young Victoria	UK	IIA	7	34	Semi-Wide
Good	UK/Germany	IIA	2	12	Limited
Old Partner	South Korea	I	2	10	Limited
The White Ribbon	Germany	IIB	2	9	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

Two 3D movies on the same weekend coming up?!

Yes, HtTYD and CotT open on the same day! Isn't it crazy? Before they can compete for audiences, they will have to compete for screens. CotT has the upper hand because it has more buzz. But HtTYD is playing in IMAX 3D while CotT is not.

For your information, the distributors of Alice and Avatar either had to pay for the front rows to be booked or the theater owners just called them as "sold". It's possible that for 3D movies, they want to make sure the audience doesn't strain their neck too much or maybe the studios have sort of deal with the theater owners?

Here's Alice on Saturday @ 3:35:



Love in the Puff is rated R. I don't know how much business it can get if it's marketed to young adults. That rating set them back, I think. Crossing Hennessy has been getting a lot of special screenings everywhere. It will probably deflate their opening weekend numbers but with all the those theaters on board, I think they expect a decent haul next week.

Iron Man was bigger than Ip Man by almost double here. I think it will be a battle between Iron Man OW (or opening 2 weekends) vs. Ip Man legs.

Puff's Category III (No Person under 18 Is Allowed) rating is equivalent to NC-17 in the US. Young people can get carded.

Currently it is No. 4 in Thursday admission and is the only new release to manage a top 5 ranking.



I am starting to believe Crossing Hennessy is going to surprise.



Are you sure? Ip Man did $25,500,000 while Iron Man did $22,000,000. Ip Man was helped by the holiday season.

Well then, Love in a Puff is definitely a surprise for me then.



I am only talking about OW.

Iron Man - $1,180,256
Ip Man - $579,715

Weekend of March 18-21, 2010

1 1 Alice in Wonderland (2010) Disney $605,108 -52.7% 53 -7 $11,417 $4,718,781 3
2 2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Re-issue) Newport $528,025 -14.4% 43 +1 $12,280 $1,362,523 2
3 N Yuet gwong bo hup Lark $248,898 - 32 - $7,778 $248,898 1
4 3 Shutter Island Intercontinental $216,862 -8.0% 17 +1 $12,757 $554,387 2
5 5 Avatar Fox $165,166 -0.1% 7 - $23,595 $21,942,799 14
6 4 The Hurt Locker Golden Scene $139,236 -20.0% 7 - $19,891 $391,471 2
7 N The Lovely Bones Intercontinental $110,656 - 15 - $7,377 $110,656 1
8 N Ngok Toi (Womb Ghosts) Newport $97,793 - 15 - $6,520 $97,793 1
9 6 It's Complicated EDKO $77,359 -48.4% 19 -2 $4,072 $281,837 2
10 7 Nodame Kantâbire: Saishuu-gakushou - Zenpen Panasia $54,812 -55.9% 21 -4 $2,610 $511,655 3
11 10 A Single Man Cable $21,802 -40.2% 5 -1 $4,360 $74,509 2
12 8 Up in the Air Intercontinental $18,144 -59.7% 16 -5 $1,134 $701,938 4
13 N The Last Station EDKO $10,966 - 2 - $5,483 $10,966 1
14 12 The Blind Side WB $7,951 -43.6% 4 +1 $1,988 $88,853 4
15 11 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire EDKO $7,762 -49.9% 5 - $1,552 $145,990 4
16 9 72 ga cho hak (72 Tenants of Prosperity) Intercontinental $5,439 -85.8% 6 -17 $907 $4,433,592 6
17 13 Nine Intercontinental $3,973 -60.4% 4 -5 $993 $360,032 4
18 15 Crazy Heart Fox $2,666 -55.7% 3 -1 $889 $36,880 3
19 14 Gam yee wai (14 Blades) Gala $1,259 -80.0% 1 -6 $1,259 $984,711 6
20 16 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Fox $1,099 -69.5% 1 -2 $1,099 $2,009,611 6
21 21 Valentine's Day WB $934 +52.6% 1 - $934 $1,180,122 6
22 20 The Princess and the Frog Disney $805 -11.9% 1 - $805 $547,737 6
23 18 Little Big Soldier Lark $408 -85.9% 1 -2 $408 $245,430 4

Looks like Alice will finish with around 6-7 M. Terrible drop for it. I wasn't expecting it to drop over 50% even though its admissions fell by that much since its prices are inflated.

Echoes had a great hold. Looks like word of mouth is really starting to spread. I'll be watching it tomorrow...can't wait. I've only heard good things about this movie.

Just Another Pandora's Box opened mildly in 3rd place. To be honest, from the trailers, it just looked like a B movie even though it was advertised to death and has a lot of stars.

Shutter Island had an awesome hold as it had the best hold out of any movie with over 10 screens.

What can we say about Avatar? Best drop in the top 12. It probably won't make it to 23 mill just because Dragon and Clash are coming out but still...what a run. To still be in a few theaters is incredible after 14 weeks...WOW. Most movies here are gone within 2 months so it says a lot about Avatar and the word of mouth here that Avatar is still in theaters after almost 4 months.

The Hurt Locker had a solid drop but the Oscar buzz is wearing off and people are turning their attention to the new slate of movies coming out.

The Lovely Bones and Womb Ghosts both had soft openings and offered little competition.

A Single Man had an ok drop. I think the drop had more to do with unfavorable showtimes than less demand for it.

Weak opening for The Last Station.

The Blind Side won the weekend over Precious but for some reason theaters are reluctant to drop Precious but are ready to drop Blind Side at a moment's notice. Don't know why though. Precious's run has been confusing as its sales have not been enough to justify it staying in theaters and even if The Blind Side outsells Precious 2:1, it somehow loses the good showtimes to Precious.

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Thursday admissions (March 25)

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 6,668 (-29.2%)
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English) - 3,545 (-55.0%)
3. Love In A Puff - 2,844
4. Shutter Island - 2,151 (-49.3%)
5. When In Rome - 1,745

Good hold for Echoes. Terrible for Alice...although with its showtimes getting cut, it was no surprise. Weak for Love In A Puff and When In Rome. Hefty drop for Shutter Island too...it should pick up when the weekend rolls around.

Friday admissions (March 26) so far

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 3,546 (-33.0%)
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English) - 2,757 (-58.9%)
3. Avatar (3D) - 1,623 (-5.4%)
4. Shutter Island - 1,275 (-46.1%)
5. Love In A Puff - 920

Incredible drop for Avatar. It would be incredibly sad if Love In A Puff decreases in admissions today from its opening day.

It's possible that Avatar might increase this week in gross because the 4D theater is giving it 2 showtimes on Sunday compared with 1 last Sunday. Alice has disappointed and has been losing in admissions per day to Avatar when it has quadruple the showings (4:1).

Hey i.hope, if you have free time, could you post tomorrow and Saturday's admissions? I am taking a trip to the cinema on both days.

Echoes of the Rainbow (aka 2001: A Space Odyssey) actually had the best hold in the top 10. About $104,000 from its opening weekend was from the sneak showings prior to its opening. Adjusted for that, its sophomore weekend increased 3% from the previous week.

New Releases (3/25/2010)

Love in a Puff


When in Rome


The Fantastic Mr. Fox


Meat Grinder


Young Victoria


Good


Old Partner


The White Ribbon

I'll try. Tell us what you think about the movies when you come back.

3/26/2010 Friday Admission Updates (as of 11:40 pm HKT)

1. Echoes of the Rainbow 11,043
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D English) 5,355
3. Love in a Puff 3,812
4. Shutter Island 3,548
5 When in Rome 2,981

Thanks so much, i.hope! Updated with the week-to-week holds added in.

Friday admissions (March 26)

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 11,043 (-20.3%)
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 5,355 (-52.5%)
3. Love in a Puff - 3,812
4. Shutter Island - 3,548 (-42.1%)
5. When In Rome - 2,981

Good for Echoes. Just ok for Shutter Island and ouch for Alice. At least Love In A Puff increased from its opening day.

Saturday admissions (so far) - March 27

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 7,350 (-34.0%)
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 6,576 (-41.7%)
3. Avatar (3D) - 3,029 (-7.2%)
4. Crossing Hennessy - 2,412
5. Love in a Puff - 1,911

A somewhat respectable hold for Alice considering all the bleeding it's been doing the past week or 2. Still respectable for Echoes. Excellent for Avatar but fatigue has to be setting in. Great start for Crossing Hennessy. Love In A Puff is heading for what...$150,000 US 1st weekend?

Now, here's what you've been waiting for.

Echoes of the Rainbow
94 seats - SOLD OUT

Movie: Really touching movie. It's a well-made movie that could have used a trim (no pun intended - watch the movie to understand why) of about 10-15 minutes. I thought all the actors were really good but especially the kid. The story revolved around him and is told from his point of view. When the heartache came, all of their tears came off as believable and not as "fake crying" or forced. There were some really funny scenes in this movie...some that are related to the Hong Kong culture and others that are not.

As for the crowd, I only heard good things coming out. Although I had my experience spoiled because the girl sitting next to me kept texting someone every 10 minutes. It's worth the ticket, but I don't see any replay value with this. 8/10

These early ticket sales numbers include mostly presales (sales for same-day showings from previous days). We can see that IMAX 3D releases clearly have an advantage in presales.

That said, Avatar's performance is still impressive considering it still ranked 3rd in gross Thursday, beating every single new release.

3/25/2010 Thursday Numbers

Openers:

	New Releases					March 25, 2010
Rank	Title	Origin	Rating	# Theaters	# Showings	Platform	Thursday	Admissions Per Showing
4	Love in a Puff	Hong Kong	III	26	134	Wide	HK$ 144,354	18
6	When in Rome	US	IIA	22	108	Wide	HK$ 116,445	18
-	The Fantastic Mr. Fox	US	I	10	46	Semi-Wide	HK$ 19,800	7
-	Meat Grinder	Thailand	III	8	36	Semi-Wide	HK$ 16,000	8
-	The Young Victoria	UK	IIA	7	34	Semi-Wide	HK$ 37,000	18
-	Good	UK/Germany	IIA	2	12	Limited	HK$ 2,300	4
-	Old Partner	South Korea	I	2	10	Limited	HK$1,300	2
-	The White Ribbon	Germany	IIB	2	9	Limited	HK$ 14,000	26

Holdovers:

Holdovers				March 25, 2010
Rank	Title	Weeks	Thursday	Week-to-Week Drop
1	Echoes of the Rainbow	3	HK$ 387,029	-28%
2	Alice in Wonderland	4	HK$264,422	-52%
3	Avatar	15	HK$ 188,393	-1%
5	Shutter Island	3	HK$ 135,762	-29%
7	Just Another Pandora's Box	2	HK$ 107,952	-67%
8	The Hurt Locker	3	HK$ 88,565	-45%

Very poor for the openers. The only new releases worth mentioning are Love in a Puff and The White Ribbon. Despite a rating equivalent to NC-17, Love in a Puff managed to pull ahead of the pack. The White Ribbon had the best admissions per showing among the openers.

Looks like none of the openers generated any interest.

This looks like Avatar's last great hold as its IMAX showtimes are getting cut to 2 on Thursday (3 if you include midnight showings from Thurs -> Mon).

Alice's run in IMAX has been extended by 3 days. Last showing is Sat. April 17 (midnight).

How To Train Your Dragon now has the IMAX screen to itself in the mornings and afternoons. The Chinese version will run in the mornings and the English version in the afternoons.

Full breakdown of IMAX theatres:

1. UA iSQUARE IMAX

How To Train Your Dragon (Cantonese) - 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM
How To Train Your Dragon (English) - 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM
Avatar - 6:00 PM, 9:20 PM, 12:30 AM (for 5 days only)

2. BEA IMAX

Alice In Wonderland (6 showings [April 1], 7 showings [April 2-5])

Saturday admissions (March 27)

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 19,596
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 11,013
3. Love in a Puff - 6,758
4. Shutter Island - 6,395
5. When In Rome - 4,440

Sunday admissions (so far) - March 28

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 8,691
2. Alice in Wonderland (3D - English version) - 6,969
3. Avatar (3D) - 3,164
4. Love in a Puff - 2,196
5. Shutter Island - 1,872

ihope or Bluebomb, do you know if Yajima Biyoshitsu THE MOVIE: Yume wo Tsukama Nevada will be released in Hong Kong this Summer?

Not yet. They don't update new movie releases after 4 weeks out unless if there is a special reason (ie: Wall Street moving from March -> October).

How To Train Your Dragon/Avatar both extended in IMAX till April 14.

Sunday March 28 - Top 5 Admissions

1. Echoes of the Rainbow - 18,329 (-32.6%)
2. Alice in Wonderland - 10,346 (-45.7%)
3. Love In A Puff - 6,069
4. Shutter Island - 5,366 (-43.6%)
5. Just Another Pandora's Box - 3,933 (-58.1%)

Thanks for updating, Bluebomb. The drop for Echoes of the Rainbow is simply great. I wonder how well it will hold up against Titans, Dragon, and Hennessy next week.

Corpse, can you give the Kanji title and a poster of your movie? Villon's Wife is the only Japanese film listed under "Coming Soon".