Movies releasing in Fall/Winter 2013

Release Date	Movie Title
September 5 (Fall)	Before Midnight Riddick Shield of Straw The Bling Ring Grown Ups 2 The Midas Touch Red 2
September 12	The Reluctant Fundamentalist 2 Guns Barfi!
September 19	3096 Days We're the Millers jOBS Love is in the Air Sadako 2 The Best Plan Is No Plan
September 26	This is the End Runner, Runner Elysium The Place Beyond the Pines
October 3	Gravity About Time Twice Born Special ID Inferno
October 10	Captain Phillips Haunt Rush
October 12	The Girl in the Sun
October 17	Don Jon Blue Jasmine Make Your Move
October 24	Escape Plan Rigor Mortis (Compass)
October 31 (Winter)	Ender's Game
November 7	Thor: The Dark World Venus in Fur
November 14	The Counselor Insidious: Chapter 2 Machete Kills
November 21	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
November 28	Carrie Like Father Like Son Project Blue Book
December 5	Battle of the Year
December 12	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
December 19	Frozen Tarzan Walking with Dinosaurs The Wind Rises The Monkey King
December 25	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 47 Ronin The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Fall begins with an interesting battle between Riddick and Red 2. Shield of Straw is looking to be this fall's leggiest foreign film. Before Midnight will be also be a film to watch given that its early special previews at Cityplaza and iSQUARE sold out within 1 hour. Growns Up 2 will be a major flop. The first one did really bad and it will have competition. It is being bookended by The Internship a week before and This is the End at the end of September.

The middle of September will feature the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday which is why studios and distributors are snapping up slots quickly. Sadako 2 is coming off a huge hit here with Sadako and it is widely expected to win that weekend. Call the September 26 weekend the weekend of the long delayed films. 3/4 movies on that list have been delayed by at least 1 month from the US release date. Elysium has the edge with IMAX but Runner Runner could pose a challenge.

The most interesting weekend of the fall season comes right at the beginning of October where 2 local releases go head to head. It will be Donnie Yen vs. Lau Ching Wan in the battle of superstars. But Gravity will be ahead of both of them due to IMAX and intense interest.

Winter begins with Ender's Game out and it should be a big event movie. Early marketing has fired off posters with HK's financial district being destroyed. Thor is unleashed the following week and then we've got The Hunger Games 2 two weeks later.

The Hobbit 2 will hope to reclaim the winter crown on December 12.

December 19 is going to be one of the most heavily looked at weekends of the remaining 4 months. 4/5 scheduled releases are family films and 3 of them belong to the animation category. Out of the whole lot, The Wind Rises is the most anticipated with it being Hayao Miyazaki's rumored final film. This will challenge as the biggest film of the winter. Hayao Miyazaki's last 3 films have made 2.5m or more. I expect it to make at least 5m. Something will have to move because The Wind Rises is surely going to be an event film this winter. The Monkey King has just been recently moved to December 19, however, it is unclear if that date will stick. If so, then I guess they are hoping for big HK star + holidays will = Journey to the West box office total.

One more family film will enter on Christmas Day. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 will hope to break 1m this winter. The first one was released on New Year's Eve and was a mild hit. Competition looks to be extremely fierce and until other animations gets out of the way on December 19, Cloudy 2 might not have a chance to get to 1m with this much competition scheduled.

Blue where are you? Any updates for the weekend?

According to BOM (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/hongkong/?yr=2013&wk=32&p=.htm), The Lone Ranger led the pack last weekend, outrunning second place The Heat by 2-to-1. Johnny Depp and nostalgia probably played a large part in its success. Placing third, The Wolverine had a steep 63% drop. The Smurfs 2 eased 52% at fourth. Horror pic Tales from the Dark Part 2 debuted at fifth. Local dance pic The Way We Dance had a soft landing at seventh.

Daily ticket sales tracking (as of 5:30am HKT, Thursday, August 15):

1. (NEW) Percy Jackson: Sea Monsters 5,984
2. (NEW) Unbeatable (HK, boxing drama) 4,477
3. (NEW) Kick-Ass 2 1,902
4. (NEW) The Dragonball Z movie (Japan) 1,164
5. The Way We Dance ((HK) 914
6. The Lone Ranger 872
7. The Smurfs 2 480
8. The Heat 462
9. Monsters University 449
10. The Wolverine 250
11. Despicable Me 2 201
12. SDU (HK) 198
...
16. (NEW) Mud 89
...
19. (NEW)Spring Breakers 55


Percy Jackson 2 did well. Kick-Ass 2 looked soft. The Lone Ranger and The Heat fell hard while The Way We Dance had a respectable hold. But these are only presales as walk-ins can shake things up a little.

I am not sure why The Heat is not able to connect to Asian markets. It did poorly in Singapore as well even though the WOM was pretty good.

BTW thanks for the updates i.hope

Daily ticket sales tracking (Friday, August 16):

1. (NEW) Unbeatable (HK) 23,735 ($1,600,070)
2. (NEW) Percy Jackson: Sea Monsters 18,343 ($1,632,190)
3. (NEW) Kick-Ass 2 9,252 ($654,370)
4. The Lone Ranger 4,120
5. The Way We Dance (HK) 4,067
6. The Heat 2,549
7. (NEW) The Dragonball Z movie (Japan) 2,054
8. Monsters University 2,048
9. The Smurfs 1,444
10. Despicable Me 2 885
11. The Wolverine 868
12. SDU (HK) 840
...
16. (NEW) Mud 393
...
19. (NEW)Spring Breakers 200


Boxing drama Unbeatable emerged atop in the number of ticket sold on Friday, although Percy Jackson 2 led in gross thanks to 3D premium. If I remember correctly, Kick-Ass 2's debut was similar to its predecessor three years ago. Street dance pic The Way We Dance had a good week-to-week hold, dropping no more than 30%. The Dragonball Z movie was extremely frontloaded.

Although they have different rating and cater to different audience it is kinda crazy to have Kick-Ass and Percy open on the same weekend. There is definitely an audience overlap there. Kick-Ass 2 wouldn't have been very big anyways but it could have done had it opened with another non-action movie.

Because it's women being funny. Asia is such a male-dominated continent. Also the female American humour does not translate well in Asia. Women in the US laugh at disgusting things, whereas in China for example, their humour is much more innocent/naive. I fully expected it not to do well in Asia, it's just not the type of movie that does well here. American films only do well if they contain spectacularly flamboyant visual effects or robots/superheroes or both.

But I thought audience can still have a good laugh and the movie is funny as hell. Its also a buddy cop comedy which do okish numbers in Asia. I observed that it was pulled out of theaters way too early even when the reviews were good and the audience were grooming up to it. Not sure if that is the case everywhere, though I do agree that the opening wasn't that big.

Yes, but that's the Asian culture again...buddy cop comedy. All of these three words are associated with males.

Male cop movies do well in Asia.
Male buddy movies do well in Asia.
Male comedies do well in Asia.

Seriously, it's just a sexist thing. The film is probably being enjoyed by the few that saw it. But Asia cares about its male pride more than its enjoyment. It'll take years to change.

Yeah that's true but it is also more on the mentality of women here. I saw the movie with my wife and I can sense that she was very uncomfortable with women dropping F-bombs all the time. But nevermind I get what you are saying and that is probably true

Interesting observation. I agree that female buddy cop comedies are not popular in Hong Kong. But female cop movies and female comedies can be box office hits when they find the right audience. The latest example is Blind Detective with Sammi Cheng playing a police inspector pairing up with private detective Andy Lau in solving a cold case. Other examples include Miriam Yeung's Love Undercover series and Sandra Ng's Golden Chicken.



And you're right. There is a difference between male and female comedies. Sexist or not, comedies with female leads are less "outrageous" and often blend with some romance while comedies with male leads are more "hardcore" and less family-oriented (examples: Vulgaria, SDU)

I don't know about Golden Chicken, but surely Blind Detective's pull is Andy Lau? I saw the trailer and TV commercials here in China, and they 100% focus on Lau. To be honest, I didn't even notice a female in the movie. Females in these movies are always just the pinup, to look good, the same as in Badges of Fury. A 100% female-centric movie will never do well in Asia.

I'm racking my brains to think of an American movie that has the female as the lead that has done well in China. In fact, not just American movie, but ANY movie. Hong Kong is more liberal than the mainland, so I would expect a few female movies to do better there than here....I doubt they would even get released here.

Horror movies that center only on females do well though

That is appealing to the male fantasy.

I'm telling you, Asia is all about the man. Make-up, dating TV shows, other TV series' and shopping is for ladies... that's what happens. Movies are for men (and couples, but the girl only goes along to support the guy - she probably falls asleep half way through).

Out of curiosity, which horrors do well?

I see Conjuring doing pretty well and that has only Wilson as male in it. I remember The Ring was a big hit. Sadako movies and The Grudge also have females featured heavily in their marketing.

Somehow horror tends to do well with females as well, ofcourse they don't have violent women making fun of stuffs and some of the scary shit women can relate to themselves

Yeah, but like I said, horror movies have different rules. Men love to watch horror. Women..not so much. So what do men want to see in a horror movie? a scantily clad, muscle bound hunk running from a madman or a scantily clad, big breasted bimbo running from a madman?

Exactly.

You've just added more proof to my 'Asia is male dominated society' theory.

Does Titanic count?

I haven't seen Blind Detective. But Sammi Cheng is definitely a draw in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and possibly in Southern China. She shared top-billing with Andy Lau in other projects ("Needing You", "Love on a Diet", "Yesterday Once More") too.

Titanic was big everywhere, though.

Sammi Cheng, ok, this is the first time I've even heard of her. You have to admit that men pretty much dominate the star power in Asia, and the viewership is predominantly male with the majority of the product being male-oriented. There may be a few glimpses of female stardom, but even those are mainly due to their bosom size, which then is directly related to male fantasy and therefore is firmly supporting the male domination of cinema.

Fair enough. Men dominate the star power in Asia and the world (!) because men are the default first choice for leading roles in most major action and adventure movies. And action and adventure movies are what sell in the international market. Comedies, on the other hand, don't travel far from one country to another.

I have to question your "female stardom due to bosom size" statement. Name an actress who became famous for their boob size. I can't think of one.

Yeah, I agree. But they don't have much choice left as White House Down and Mortal Instruments are slated for next week.

Yep the overload of action movies will kill each other.

Well, there's Ada Liu

But I meant 'bosom size' as code for 'women's looks'. Generally all famous women in Asia are beautiful. None of them can act for shit.

No idea who Ada Liu is.