Or a spinoff of Vulgaria or Man Suddenly in Black. It's produced by the director of those two movies.

‘SDU’: A Bawdy Homage to Hong Kong (http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2013/07/25/s ... hong-kong/)



So it is a movie catering to local interest and not the bigger Chinese market. In a market where co-productions are dominant and strictly local films are few and far between outside of the independents circle, Pan Ho Cheung is a rare breed.

He's not the director so I don't really understand why they keep talking about this movie as if it is his. He only produced it.

SDU is getting roasted on social media sites. Abysmal word of mouth coming out.

	Thursday			July 25
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	The Wolverine	--	22,422	--
2	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	3,670	15,638	+326.1%
3	Monsters University	34,065	15,011	-55.9%
4	Pacific Rim	28,385	13,486	-52.5%
5	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	5,808	--
6	Despicable Me 2	7,020	3,813	-45.7%
7	Turbo	5,519	2,449	-55.6%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	4,894	1,867	-61.9%
9	Tiny Times	--	1,704	--
10	Disconnect	--	1,104	--

The Wolverine did quite well today with walk-ins. It will beat X-Men Origins: Wolverine's opening day and 5-day opening weekend. SDU: Sex Duties Unit backdoor'd Monsters University for 2nd. Though the film wasn't directed by Pang Ho Cheung, he is most certainly the driving force behind the movie and the admissions. This won't beat Vulgaria's opening weekend even with previews included. Monsters University held up just fine. I'm not too concerned that it had the 2nd worst hold of the top 10. All the animations held up pretty good with Doraemon opening this week. Pacific Rim had a very good hold. WOM is strong for this one. I still believe that it will get to 4m. Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum had a very good opening day. It lost to last year's Doraemon offering by a slim margin in admissions but in gross, it will jump out ahead. Great hold for Despicable Me 2. Turbo also held nicely. Tales from the Dark 1 had the only weaker hold in the top 10. Tiny Times did poorly. It did around the same as Lost in Thailand's opening day. Disconnect had a good opening day. Reviews are decent.

Ok, now this weekend will decide between #2 and #3 between Pacific Rim and Monsters University. Here are the top 3 theater chains and what they are bumping up or down.

Top 4 Weekend Showtimes Theater Chains Comparison

Broadway/AMC

Promoted

Monsters University

Same

The Wolverine

Demoted

SDU: Sex Duties Unit
Pacific Rim

UA

Same

The Wolverine
SDU: Sex Duties Unit
Pacific Rim

Demoted

Monsters University

MCL

Promoted

Pacific Rim
Monsters University

Same

The Wolverine
SDU: Sex Duties Unit

Those theaters that had Monsters University on the smaller screens have bumped it to their biggest/2nd biggest screen on the weekend. It will share the biggest screen with The Wolverine at Broadway/AMC. Meanwhile, SDU: Sex Duties Unit is being heavily slashed. It has gone from the biggest screen down to the 3rd or 4th biggest screen. Pacific Rim is also getting a minor adjustment downward.

UA has gone with the trio of SDU: Sex Duties Unit/The Wolverine and Pacific Rim. Monsters University is getting demoted with less showtimes or smaller screens. SDU will share the biggest screen with The Wolverine here. UA seems to be supporting SDU the most out of the 3.

MCL are being very liberal and have given all 4 full day showtimes. Pacific Rim and Monsters University are getting a bigger screen/more showtimes here. The Wolverine and SDU remain unchanged.

Forgot to post weekend pre-sales last night. These were taken at midnight.

Langham Place
	The Wolverine	(all v.)				SDU: Sex Duties Unit					Pacific Rim	(all v.)				Monsters University	(all v.)
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Jul. 27	9:00 AM	45	202	22.28%	Jul. 27	9:10 AM	7	202	3.47%	Jul. 27	8:50 AM	32	191	16.75%	Jul. 27	8:50 AM	71	176	40.34%
	11:05 AM	15	202	7.43%		11:25 AM	2	202	0.99%		1:10 PM	16	187	8.56%		11:00 AM	42	180	23.33%
	11:20 AM	15	191	7.85%		1:20 PM	3	202	1.49%		3:20 PM	79	180	43.89%		1:10 PM	47	180	26.11%
	1:30 PM	28	202	13.86%		1:45 PM	16	191	8.38%		5:50 PM	56	180	31.11%		5:40 PM	115	187	61.50%
	2:55 PM	84	176	47.73%		3:20 PM	51	191	26.70%		7:50 PM	75	187	40.11%
	5:20 PM	44	176	25.00%		3:55 PM	41	202	20.30%		9:50 PM	63	176	35.80%
	5:35 PM	36	191	18.85%		6:00 PM	59	202	29.21%		12:25 AM	4	176	2.27%
	7:30 PM	48	202	23.76%		8:00 PM	56	191	29.32%		2:55 AM	1	176	0.57%
	7:55 PM	49	202	24.26%		8:20 PM	56	180	31.11%
	9:55 PM	46	202	22.77%		10:00 PM	48	191	25.13%
	10:15 PM	26	176	14.77%		10:20 PM	42	202	20.79%
	12:00 AM	3	191	1.57%		12:20 AM	7	202	3.47%
	12:20 AM		202	0.00%		12:40 AM	2	180	1.11%
	2:30 AM	2	191	1.05%		2:20 AM		202	0.00%
	2:45 AM		202	0.00%		2:40 AM		180	0.00%
Total		441	2908	15.17%	Total		390	2920	13.36%	Total		326	1453	22.44%	Total		275	723	38.04%

Langham Place is definitely one of the best theaters for The Wolverine and SDU: Sex Duties Unit. Strong numbers for both. Pacific Rim is also looking very good here. Monsters University is doing great here even with only 4 showtimes.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			July 26
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Monsters University	20,220	9,120	-54.9%	+46.9%
2	The Wolverine	--	8,200	--	+11.2%
3	Pacific Rim	11,868	6,611	-44.3%	+33.7%
4	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	2,168	6,104	+181.5%	+35.6%
5	Despicable Me 2	3,343	2,493	-25.4%	+47.3%
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	2,386	--	-5.5%
7	Turbo	2,422	1,349	-44.3%	+27.0%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	1,883	574	-69.5%	+30.2%
9	Tiny Times	--	517	--	-11.3%
10	Disconnect	--	509	--	+35.4%

Huge increase for Monsters University. Good for Wolverine. Early WOM seems to be very positive. Powerful hold from Pacific Rim. SDU: Sex Duties Unit had a very good Friday increase. Great for Despicable Me 2.

	Friday				July 26
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Wolverine	--	22,732	--	+1.4%
2	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	5,000	17,408	+248.2%	+11.3%
3	Monsters University	36,282	15,916	-56.1%	+6.0%
4	Pacific Rim	28,541	14,738	-48.4%	+9.3%
5	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	5,044	--	-13.2%
6	Despicable Me 2	6,662	4,412	-33.8%	+15.7%
7	Turbo	5,204	2,773	-46.7%	+13.2%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	5,818	1,988	-65.8%	+6.5%
9	Tiny Times	--	1,476	--	-13.4%
10	Disconnect	--	1,232	--	+11.6%

Good for The Wolverine. SDU: Sex Duties Unit posted the biggest increase of the top 5. OK for Monsters University. Pacific Rim held up well. Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum saw a smaller decrease from last year's Doraemon offering. Marvelous for Despicable Me 2. Not bad for Turbo. Tales from the Dark 1 is disappearing. Tiny Times is doing soft numbers. It might be able to get to $50,000 this weekend but it's weekend number is shaping up to be pretty bad. Disconnect is doing good from just 4 theaters. Should make about $35,000 this weekend. It's not listed but HK: Forbidden Super Hero is doing awesome in 2 theaters. It will make about $30,000-$35,000 this weekend for a PTA above $15,000.

Well, the story was his idea, even though he did not direct it.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			July 27
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Monsters University	36,142	16,760	-53.6%	+83.8%
2	The Wolverine	--	14,663	--	+78.8%
3	Pacific Rim	20,706	10,248	-50.5%	+55.0%
4	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	3,539	7,291	+106.0%	+19.4%
5	Despicable Me 2	5,671	4,532	-20.1%	+81.8%
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	3,881	--	+62.7%
7	Turbo	3,851	2,431	-36.9%	+80.2%
8	Tiny Times	--	768	--	+48.5%
9	HK: Forbidden Super Hero	--	700	--	--
10	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	1,838	572	-68.9%	-0.3%

Monsters University is doing better today. Its expansion this weekend should help it to drop less than 50% on both days. The Wolverine posted a good increase. Pacific Rim should see slightly larger drops today and tomorrow. SDU: Sex Duties Unit won't gain much this weekend due to being a III film. Great for Despicable Me 2. Doraemon did well. Very good hold for Turbo. Not impressed with Tiny Times. HK: Forbidden Super Hero is doing amazing. Tales from the Dark 1 is falling off quickly.

	Saturday				July 27
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Wolverine	--	33,794	--	+48.7%
2	Monsters University	54,041	25,743	-52.4%	+61.7%
3	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	7,108	21,916	+208.3%	+25.9%
4	Pacific Rim	41,986	21,455	-48.9%	+45.6%
5	Despicable Me 2	10,138	8,529	-15.9%	+93.3%
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	7,197	--	+42.7%
7	Turbo	7,994	3,865	-51.7%	+39.4%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	7,256	2,552	-64.8%	+28.4%
9	Tiny Times	--	1,907	--	+29.2%
10	HK: Forbidden Super Hero	--	1,575	--	--

Very good for The Wolverine. Already past $900,000 after 3 days. Monsters University had a big increase today. I suspect that it fell less than 50% in gross. Pacific Rim is doing very well. Outstanding hold for Despicable Me 2. Doraemon did quite good. It has fallen off a bit from last year's Doraemon but it is still ahead in gross. Turbo did OK. Tales from the Dark 1 has not done well since opening weekend. Tiny Times is nudging up a bit. Fantastic for HK: Forbidden Super Hero. Average people per showing was over 125 today.

Will Hentai Kamen really make the Top 10 for the weekend?

I admit I'd see it in theaters.

What is HK in Japanese? Is it gay porn or something?

Possibly. It will come down to how well Blind Detective did. Blind Detective was ahead of Hentai Kamen on Thursday so it has the edge this weekend.

Hentai Kamen is a manga. It's about a high school student who gains his power from wearing women's panties as his mask.

"Hentai" is commonly linked to porn, especially animated porn, though that's not exactly what it is. Most people think "Porn" whenever they hear "Hentai", but "Hentai" basically just means "perversion", or can be used as an adjective to describe something or someone that is "perverted". If you watch a lot of anime, you'll often hear a character call another character "Hentai".

"Kamen" means "Mask" in Japanese, so "Hentai Kamen" is literally "Pervert Mask".

Monsters University is the 2nd highest grossing animation film of all time behind Toy Story 3. It passed $7.73m on Friday (HK$ 60m).

Pixar (all in HKD)

Toy Story - $16,817,085
A Bug's Life - $13,992,420
Toy Story 2 - $35,732,127
Monsters Inc. - $25,777,970
Finding Nemo - $31,894,016
The Incredibles - $33,790,632
Cars - $15,026,845
Ratatouille - $25,257,320
Wall-E - did not publish; around 17m
Up - $33,295,722
Toy Story 3 - $89,364,118
Cars 2 - did not publish; a little more than $18,417,145
Brave - did not publish

It's pretty amazing that all of Pixar's entries have grossed over 1m in HK.

	Weekend Estimates			July 25
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	The Wolverine	$1,300,000		$1,300,000
2	Monsters University	$950,000	-52.6%	$8,489,000
3	Pacific Rim	$700,000	-56.6%	$3,000,000
4	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	$600,000		$1,000,000
5	Despicable Me 2	$220,000	-32.9%	$3,580,000
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	$195,000		$195,000

Great for The Wolverine. It is the biggest opening for an X-Men movie. WOM is very good so this will make 3m and become only the 2nd X-Men movie to do so. Monsters University did OK this weekend. It started off a little rough on Thursday but recovered nicely on Sunday. At this stage, 10m should be done by the August 15 weekend. Pacific Rim was ushered out of the room with The Wolverine around but did manage to break 3m this weekend. WOM remains strong so 4m is still up for grabs. It should be able to do it in 2 weeks. Depending on your view, SDU either grossed more or less than Vulgaria. Its previews represented a whopping 40% of its total opening weekend. WOM is horrendous and 2m is unlikely to happen. Despicable Me 2 fended off Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum for 5th and had the best hold of the top 10. Its surprising run is surely going to be one of Universal's highlights this summer but another big animation film is coming out next weekend. The Smurfs 2 will likely steal any remaining theaters outside of EDKO's block and it is going to be hit hard. Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum opened powerfully. Its estimated $195,000 opening is the best it has done in 5 years and is the 2nd highest grossing OW for a Doraemon film. By Doraemon standards, it's an excellent opening weekend.

Interesting. Had I known the Japanese title ("変態仮面"), I would've been able to guess the meaning. "変態" does mean "pervert" in the equivalent Chinese characters "變態". And "面" means "face" in both Japanese and Chinese. No idea about "仮" but Google Translate says it means "temporary" or "hidden" in Chinese. And "Hentai Kamen" sounds similar to its Cantonese equivalent "bien tai " " mein".

I wonder which title is more commonly used in Japan (in written form), the phonetic ("Hentai Kamen") or the semantic ("変態仮面").

	Sunday				July 28
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Wolverine	--	32,238	--	-4.6%
2	Monsters University	54,011	27,974	-48.2%	+8.7%
3	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	10,153	20,770	+104.6%	-5.2%
4	Pacific Rim	43,979	20,657	-53.0%	-3.7%
5	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	9,639	--	+33.9%
6	Despicable Me 2	11,144	9,251	-17.0%	+8.5%
7	Turbo	10,661	4,476	-58.0%	+15.8%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	6,731	2,078	--	-18.6%
9	Tiny Times	--	1,792	--	-6.0%
10	HK: Forbidden Super Hero	--	1,514	--	-3.9%

	Weekend adm.			Jul 25-28
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	The Wolverine	--	111,186	--
2	Monsters University	178,399	84,644	-52.6%
3	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	25,931	75,732	+192.1%
4	Pacific Rim	142,891	70,336	-50.8%
5	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	27,688	--
6	Despicable Me 2	34,964	26,005	-25.6%
7	Turbo	29,378	13,563	-53.8%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	24,699	8,485	-65.6%
9	Tiny Times	--	6,879	--

	Weekend Estimates			July 25
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	The Wolverine	$1,300,000		$1,300,000
2	Monsters University	$950,000	-52.6%	$8,489,000
3	Pacific Rim	$700,000	-56.6%	$3,000,000
4	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	$600,000		$1,000,000
5	Despicable Me 2	$220,000	-32.9%	$3,580,000
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	$195,000		$195,000

July 25 Weekend Actuals

1. The Wolverine - $1,280,103 (opening weekend actual)
2. SDU: Sex Duties Unit - $1,041,614 (including previews; opening weekend actual)
3. Monsters University - $8,481,165 [about $942,000 (-53.1%)]
4. Pacific Rim - $3,055,230 [about $755,000 (-53.2%)]
5. Despicable Me 2 - $3,599,242 [about $239,000 (-27.1%)]
6. Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum - $190,790 (opening weekend actual)
7. Turbo - $531,120 [about $117,000 (-61.9%)]
8. Tales from the Dark 1 - $988,760 [about $61,000 (-65.5%)]
9. Hentai Kamen: Forbidden Super Hero - $55,432 (including previews; opening weekend actual)
10. Blind Detective - $1,925,955 [about $51,000 (-67.3%)]
11. Tiny Times - $43,830 (opening weekend actual)

If we take out the $388,000 in previews for SDU and $16,630 for Hentai Kamen, the top 11 accumulated $4,362,139. That would make July 2013 the only July month on record to have 3 weekends tally above 4m or more. We'll need to see final numbers to make sure if it's the biggest July month ever.

The Wolverine grabbed the biggest opening of all time for an X-Men movie despite not having X-Men in the title. It has excellent WOM and will be the 2nd X-Men film in the series to break 3m. SDU: Sex Duties Unit had massive previews which hugely inflated its opening weekend gross but with it, it still grossed 1m. Due to the huge sneaks and the poor reception, it's unlikely to pass 2m. Monsters University's conversion to 2D this week caused its gross to drop but it recovered very nicely on Sunday. It's now the 9th biggest film of all time. It won't break into the top 5 but it could sneak past The Dark Knight Rises and Transformers: Dark of the Moon for 6th all time. Pacific Rim held strong in the face of The Wolverine. Great WOM is flying around for this one. I think 4m is still going to happen. RIPD looks DOA and The Lone Ranger does not look appealing. Despicable Me 2 once again stole the show with the best hold of the top 10. It's a superb hold but I'm still very skeptical of it breaking 4m when The Smurfs 2 is coming out this week. Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum did its best numbers in 5 years. One of the bigger Doraemon openings of all time, this should be able to make it to $350,000. $400,000 might be reached if it does not get destroyed by The Smurfs 2. Turbo did not have a good hold. It looks like The Smurfs 2 will crush its screens this week. Tales from the Dark 1 is still dropping heavily but will inch past 1m in the next few days. Part 2 opens next week. Hentai Kamen: Forbidden Super Hero was hot on its opening weekend, snatching nearly a $20,000 PTA without previews from its opening weekend. Playing in just 2 theaters, it jumped over Tiny Times and Blind Detective into the top 10 with previews and will make over $100,000 total. Blind Detective had the worst hold of the top 10, falling over 2/3. Its fall signals the death of it making 2m and it looks to finish with only 1.97m. Tiny Times opened in 10 theaters and a $4,000+ PTA. It saw a Mainland boost over the weekend but it did not really excite crowds outside of its niche market.

	Monday adm.	(so far)			July 29
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Monsters University	10,019	5,375	-46.4%	-74.3%
2	Pacific Rim	6,218	3,628	-41.7%	-66.8%
3	The Wolverine	--	3,556	--	-78.3%
4	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	1,178	2,189	+85.8%	-80.0%
5	Despicable Me 2	2,179	1,816	-16.7%	-70.3%
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	1,605	--	-75.2%
7	Turbo	1,405	986	-29.8%	-68.6%
8	Tiny Times	--	318	--	-60.3%
9	Disconnect	--	246	--	-66.3%
10	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	865	236	-72.7%	--

	Monday adm.				July 29
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Wolverine	--	13,954	--	-50.1%
2	Monsters University	--	12,344	--	-61.7%
3	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	--	11,319	--	-45.5%
4	Pacific Rim	--	9,662	--	-53.2%
5	Despicable Me 2	--	4,746	--	-48.7%
6	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	--	4,113	--	-57.3%
7	Turbo	--	2,176	--	-51.4%
8	Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	--	1,175	--	-43.5%
9	Tiny Times	--	1,154	--	-35.6%
10	Disconnect	--	814	--	--

Movie	Last Thu.	Mon.	% chg
The Wolverine	22,422	13,954	-37.8%
Monsters University	15,011	12,344	-17.8%
SDU: Sex Duties Unit	15,638	11,319	-27.6%
Pacific Rim	13,486	9,662	-28.4%
Despicable Me 2	3,813	4,746	+24.5%
Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	5,808	4,113	-29.2%
Turbo	2,449	2,176	-11.1%
Tales from the Dark Pt. 1	1,867	1,175	-37.1%
Tiny Times	1,704	1,154	-32.3%
Disconnect	1,104	814	-26.3%

Not bad for The Wolverine. X-Men films are frontloaded in nature but excellent WOM should be able to overcome this. Strong Monday for Monsters University. In fact, all of the holdover animations saw drops of less than 20% from Thursday. Decent for SDU. OK Monday for Pacific Rim but it is kind of struggling in some theaters. Wow for Despicable Me 2. WOW.

August 1 Thursday Schedules

Based on early pre-sales, here is where everything stands

1. The Smurfs/The Wolverine
3. Monsters University
4. SDU
5. Pacific Rim

Forgot about R.I.P.D. Pacific Rim drops out of the top 5 then.

Updated

1. The Smurfs 2
2. The Wolverine
3. Monsters University
4. SDU
5. R.I.P.D.

August 1 Predictions

1. The Smurfs 2 - $1,000,000
2. The Wolverine - $665,000 (-48.0%)
3. Monsters University - $445,000 (-52.8%)
4. SDU - $290,000 (-55.6%)
5. R.I.P.D. - $270,000

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		August 1
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	The Smurfs 2	--	4,083	--
2	The Wolverine	7,373	3,343	-54.7%
3	Monsters University	6,209	3,178	-48.8%
4	Pacific Rim	4,945	2,325	-53.0%
5	SDU: Sex Duties Unit	4,501	1,961	-56.4%
6	R.I.P.D.	--	1,846	--
7	The Rooftop	--	1,452	--
8	Despicable Me 2	1,692	1,354	-20.0%
9	Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum	2,526	1,057	-58.2%
10	Secretly Greatly	--	716	--

Catastrophic for The Smurfs 2. WOW. Its combined admissions is down -62.7% from The Smurfs' 3D Cantonese and English admissions only. At this rate, if it does not pick up, The Wolverine will win a 2nd weekend. Pretty good for The Wolverine. Good for Monsters University. Pacific Rim did decently. SDU did alright. R.I.P.D. is doing terribly. I have no idea why The GRAND decided to not let people use giftcards or complimentary tickets for this film for 2 weeks. It is not a blockbuster at all. The Rooftop did OK for being in 20 theaters but how frontloaded will it be? INSANE hold for Despicable Me 2. Despicable Me did not even do that great here so this is a huge surprise. Not good for Doraemon. Secretly Greatly is not doing that well.

Thanks God people there realize how stupid the first film is, not hating on it but I hope it bombs everywhere and makes Sony stops planning sequels every 2 years

The Smurfs should have never traveled/gone to the human world

REBOOT! REBOOT! but in 15 years at least

Agree with Brian. Studios need to stop announcing additional sequels before the first sequel even comes out. I almost want this to tank just to see Smurfs 3 get cancelled and Sony have to eat their words. Maybe Hollywood will learn a lesson about all this franchise brinksmanship.