A note about Monsters University: I believe it has already passed 10m. If you look at its total after its 4th weekend, it had accumulated $9.31m. The problem with that number, however, is that by July 31, it had made 8.938m. If you add on the $476,000 reported by BOM, its total after the August 1 would be at $9.414m signifying that $103,000 has disappeared from Monsters University's total. I'm not sure if it's a simple clerical error or something more sinister perhaps (fudging?) but in my eyes, it has already passed 10m. It should stand at 10.75m after this weekend.

Unbeatable has been doing spectacular numbers so far but the close battle for #1 last week was a pivotal week for Unbeatable. If it successfully defended #1 for the fifth week in a row, it will have been the only film since Avatar to reign on top for more than 4 weeks. No other film in at least a decade has achieved this feat. Unfortunately for Unbeatable, The Stolen Years won Sunday and can successfully claim victory over Unbeatable if you include the sneaks it got. Also, official weekend numbers are never published so we won't know who the victor really was. Still, the fact that a boxing movie could and will take down the much hyped Cold War from last year is a magnificent accomplishment.

The Way We Dance is also another eye opener. It will supersede a 10 multiplier and 2m total is looking pretty good with holidays coming up.

Welcome back!

Great for Monsters University.

Hong Kong-based movies have recently struck a chord with local moviegoers. Inspirational dramas Unbeatable and The Way We Dance (partially funded by the city's movie grants) have had great legs. Unbeatable is currently #3 on the yearly chart, beating the likes of World War Z and Man of Steel. The micro-budgeted The Way We Dance is currently #26, tiptoeing past After Earth and The Lone Ranger.

Taiwan romance The Stolen Years is enjoying good gross and great legs in a sea of action-packed movies.

Thor 2 has already passed Thor's opening day and opening Friday admissions. It is looking at a 1.7-1.8m opening weekend. Fantastic. Can't wait to see this tomorrow.

Rigor Mortis is doing extremely well. It could find its way to just over 2m when the dust settles. Captain Phillips is doing pretty good as well. It could finish with about 1.5-1.6m.

Just watched Thor 2. It's better than the first and I'm not ashamed to say it's the best movie of the year. It deserves to make 5m at least.

Box office: Thor 2 is still looking very good. It'll increase 7% on Friday which is heavily down from Thor's Friday increase but this is winter and weekends will make up a lot of ground for the weaker Friday increase.

As for The Hunger Games enthusiasts, Catching Fire should do very well in Hong Kong. The Hunger Games opened softly (2nd lowest opening weekend of all Asian territories) but held superbly (2nd best legs of all Asian markets). I expect Catching Fire to make about 1.6m OW and a total between 4.5-5.5m.

Thursday's box office (October 31 -- Happy Halloween)

1. Thor 2 - $386,993 (including Wednesday midnights, opening day actual)
2. Rigor Mortis - $928,783 (-2% from last Thursday)
3. Captain Phillips - $1,006,181
4. Prisoners - $29,669 (opening day actual)

Thor vs. Thor 2 Opening Weekend Comparison

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Thor	20,466	22,338	37,071	39,375	119,250
Thor 2	30,100 (est.)	32,000 (est.)	55,989		118,089
Gap	+9,634	+19,296	+38,214	-1,161

Thor 2 almost matches Thor's opening weekend admissions in 3 days. Very impressive.

Rigor Mortis is making quite a name for itself too. It slimmed down just 2% from last week, partially due to Halloween but mostly due to good word of mouth. It's having a great run so far.

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Thor	20,466	22,338	37,071	39,375	119,250
Thor 2	30,100	32,000	55,989	55,100	173,189
Gap	+9,634	+19,296	+38,214	+53,939

Thor 2's Sunday is down just -1.6% from Saturday. That's pretty good considering that only 1 Marvel-produced film has managed a better Sunday hold in the past few years. This is a good indicator of strong word of mouth.

User reviews have been pouring in since opening day and most seem to agree that this is better than the first.

Thor 2 opening weekend estimate: $1,720,000

Very good number. 5m is possible.

October 31 Weekend Actuals

1. Thor 2 - $2,063,913 (opening weekend actual, $52,980 PTA)
2. Rigor Mortis - $1,289,946
3. Captain Phillips - $1,225,448
4. Prisoners - $193,491 (opening weekend actual, $9,213 PTA)
5. Like Father, Like Son - $167,692 (opening weekend actual, $12,899 PTA)

Outstanding for Thor 2. It nearly doubled Thor's opening weekend. I think 5m is a lock with this number. Rigor Mortis equally shined at #2. Let's see if it has enough momentum to get to 2m. Captain Phillips held up nicely. Prisoners did alright. Like Father, Like Son had a very good opening weekend.

November 9 Update - Saturday:

#1 was Thor 2, which fell a solid 45% in admissions. In gross, because of the switch from 3D to 2D this week, its hold will be slightly larger, around 50%. Overall though, it is a pretty good hold with Ender's Game out this week competing for screens. 5m is a lock.

#2: Escape Plan was a nice surprise this week. Although Sylvester Stallone has not had huge takings here in HK, this will be one of his better openers. It opened around $60,000 on Thursday so weekend take should be around $300,000. Reviews are very strong.

#3: Rigor Mortis continues to shine. Another incredibly strong hold this weekend. 2m will happen soon.

#4: Ender's Game stunk. It averaged only 29 people per showing on Thursday. #3 this weekend will be fairly close. User reviews are on the positive side.

I'm so very glad to hear this.

The White Storm: Can it deliver the goods against a behemoth?

One of the biggest surprises of this winter is last week's champ. The White Storm roared to a $1.3m opening weekend and sent The Hunger Games tumbling down 56% on its 3rd weekend. It'll face a huge challenge when The Hobbit swarms into HK theaters in hopes of overthrowing the latest acting trio venture. One of the things going for The White Storm is the fact that prices are at normal levels. It does not have an added surcharge like The Hunger Games nor does it have a ridiculous fare hike ala The Hobbit 2. Maybe that will ensure it stabilizes with a sizable 2nd weekend take.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug...will viewers tune in or shy away from the sequel?

After a disappointing run for the first film, The Hobbit is back this year to take care of business. Last year, The Hobbit opened to a meager 1.48m despite having ticket prices set at record highs. It lost to the finale of Twilight on its 2nd weekend and fell hard after the holidays. It didn't even manage to beat Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King, which many expected it to beat.

The Hobbit 2 has some incredible competition in The White Storm but also with early sneaks. Movie theaters are throwing everything but the kitchen sink to get people to watch movies and this is not doing The Hobbit 2 any favours. Ticket prices for The Hobbit 2 have eclipsed last year's records and are an earth-shattering $30-60 more than regular 3D priced movies. If we have learned anything from last year, it's that moviegoers aren't going to spend that much more for a non-event movie. Admissions have been tepid and are behind The White Storm at most places.

UA Times Square re-opens...under a new name?!

After the crushing blow of having the rug pulled out from under them, UA Times Square has re-opened but this time it's been re-branded under the new name 'Cine Times'. The new theater boasts around 900 leather seats, 5 theaters altogether and 2 of them capable of playing Dolby Atmos versions of movies. Early returns have been a little disappointing but maybe business will pick up during the holidays.

Early screenings...we've got them. You (don't) want them.

In an effort to engage moviegoers to head to the theater, theaters will offer many early screenings to films releasing this month. Here's the list:

Free Birds (Special Screenings: Dec 7/8 - Dec 12 release)
Firestorm (Special Screenings: Dec 14 - Dec 19 release)
The Wind Rises (Special Screenings: Dec 14/15 - Dec 19 release)
Frozen (Special Screenings: Dec 14/15 - Dec 19 release)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Special Screenings: Dec 21 - Dec 25 release)

The 3 December 19 films will be of considerable interest as it will squeeze into The Hobbit/The White Storm showings this weekend. It will also give us an early preview into Christmas week. Tops on my watch list will be The Wind Rises. I am excited about this one's box office prospects. 2nd would have to be Firestorm but can 2 HK movies survive at once together with big Hollywood films?

2013 Surprises...just how many will there be?

In compiling the list for this year's biggest surprises, I have come to the conclusion that there is just too many to choose from. Instead of the usual 10, this year I will be making a top 20 list.

I see you didn't update while Escape Plan was in cinemas. Pretty sneaky fucking plan if you ask me!

Actually, it's still in theaters.

Weekend update

#1: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug managed to pull away from The White Storm this weekend thanks to an increase on Sunday, however opening weekend admissions are down close to 15% from TH: An Unexpected Journey. In gross, it'll make about $1.35m this weekend.

#2: The White Storm held on tight to #2 as it recorded higher attendance than The Hobbit on Thursday and Friday. It is looking at a weekend of about $775,000 for a 2 week total of $2.7m. 4m should happen.

For the 'sneak'ers:

The Wind Rises blew through the cold and scored an early victory in admissions over Frozen. In gross, it turned out to be a close call due to Frozen's 3D prices but The Wind Rises gets an early Christmas present.

It's not all bad news for Frozen though. Frozen outperformed Wreck-It Ralph's sneaks from last year with 12,500 admissions this weekend. I guess people were more receptive to Frozen after the success of Wreck-It Ralph, however, word of mouth is not as strong as Wreck-It Ralph or The Wind Rises. It remains to be seen if this cartoon can overtake Wreck-It Ralph's title as the biggest winter animated release ever but with 4 family films out next weekend, I'm not convinced that it can.

Both The Wind Rises and Frozen will carry on with sneaks during the week so this battle will stretch into both of their opening weekends.

As for Firestorm, the new Andy Lau flick, it has gotten a lot of hype and promotion. It held sneak previews in 4 theaters and retained a 95%+ capacity rate at all of them. This will be the film to beat over Christmas week, however, The White Storm still has momentum so it'll be interesting to see if one cancels out the other or if they both struggle under the weight of the competition and each other or if both can survive.

Top 20 Surprises List (2013 edition)

*This list is incomplete. Do not take the list below as final.

These are the contenders for this year's top 20 list.

The Grandmaster
Cloud Atlas
Warm Bodies
Gangster Squad
Lost in Thailand
A Good Day to Die Hard
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
Silver Linings Playbook
Oz: The Great and Powerful
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
The Croods
Finding Mr. Right
Iron Man 3
The Call
Pee Mak Phra Khanong
Searching for Sugar Man
Fast & Furious 6
American Dreams in China
Now You See Me
World War Z
Man of Steel
Despicable Me 2
Blind Detective
Monsters University
Pacific Rim
The Wolverine
The Smurfs 2
The Way We Dance
The Stolen Years
Sadako 2
Gravity
Inferno
About Time
Rigor Mortis
Thor: The Dark World
Escape Plan
The White Storm

One of the names here will be the #1 surprise of 2013. Who will it be?

Yes, I know. I was just joking. But nobody cares about its 5th or 6th weekend.

I pick "Searching for Sugar Man" and "The Way We Dance" as most surprising to me. They are being released at the right time when the social climate turns and suddenly welcomes such movies.

Thursday Schedules

Broadway

Palace APM
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Firestorm 3D - 8 showings (▲ 3)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 3D - 3 showings (▼ 5)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Firestorm - 13 showings (▲ 3)	No Breathing - 1 showing (▼ 2)	Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya
Frozen (3D Can.) - 3 showings	Oshin - 1 showing (▼ 2)	Space Pirate Captain Harlock
Frozen (Can.) - 2 showings	The White Storm - 3 showings (▼ 8)	Carrie
The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 5 showings		The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Wind Rises (Can.) - 3 showings (▼ 5)
Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Can.) - 2 showings
Walking With Dinosaurs (Can.) - 1 showing

Festival Walk
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Firestorm 3D - 6 showings (▲ 2)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 3D - 3 showings (▼ 6)	No Breathing
Firestorm - 11 showings (▲ 2)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - 1 showing (▼ 3)	Escape Plan
Frozen (3D Can.) - 2 showings (▲ 1)	Free Birds (Can.) - 1 showing (▼ 2)
Frozen (3D Eng.) - 3 showings (▲ 1)	Oshin - 1 showing (▼ 4)
Frozen (Can.) - 1 showing	The White Storm - 3 showings (▼ 6)
The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 4 showings (▲ 3)	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 1 showing (▼ 3)
The Wind Rises (Can.) - 3 showings (▲ 1)	Gravity 3D - 1 showing (=)
Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Can.) - 1 showing
Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Eng.) - 2 showings
Walking With Dinosaurs (Can.) - 1 showing

UA

Langham Place
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Firestorm 3D - 11 showings (▲ 5)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D HFR) - 4 showings (▼ 6)	No Breathing
Frozen (3D Can.) - 3 showings (▲ 2)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 3D - 5 showings (▼ 7)	Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya
Frozen (Can.) - 1 showing	The White Storm - 9 showings (▼ 11)
The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 4 showings (▲ 3)	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 1 showing (▼ 3)
The Wind Rises (Can.) - 2 showings (▲ 1)
Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Can.) - 2 showings
Walking With Dinosaurs (Can.) - 1 showing

Cine Times
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Firestorm 3D - 6 showings (▲ 2)	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D Atmos) - 4 showings (▼ 6)	No Breathing
Firestorm - 2 showings	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D HFR) - 2 showings (=)	The White Storm
Frozen (3D Can.) - 2 showings (▼ 3)	The White Storm (Atmos) - 4 showings (▲ 2)	Oshin
Frozen (3D Eng.) - 2 showings (▲ 1)		The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 4 showings (▲ 2)
The Wind Rises (Can.) - 1 showing (▼ 2)
Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Eng.) - 2 showings

Firestorm will dominate Broadway/AMC screens as its an EDKO film. Most theaters there have allocated 3 screens to Firestorm (1 for 3D, 2 for 2D, with 2 of the biggest screens going to it). The big surprise here is that 2D is getting more play than 3D. Usually 3D dwarfs over 2D but I think EDKO would rather capitalize on getting as much money as possible than lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because of not enough screens for 2D. At UA, Firestorm is still the big movie but screens are more spread out. Early pre-sales are quite weak for Firestorm so other films could snatch bigger screens this weekend.

Meanwhile, The Wind Rises is making a big push for screens this week. After a fruitful early release on Saturday and Sunday, it more than doubled Frozen's admissions on Monday and is the "alternative" for viewers this week. Many will come to experience Hayao Miyazaki's last directorial film on the big screen and it should play very well into the holidays. Both Broadway/AMC and UA theater chains have allocated 1 screen to the Japanese anime in the 3rd or 4th biggest screens but if its robust pre-sales continue and Firestorm keeps on having problems with pre-sales, we could see a slight shift this weekend.

Another cartoon, this time a Hollywood one, debuted with good sneak previews last weekend. Although Frozen pulled out a victory over Wreck-It Ralph's sneaks, all signs point to a weaker finish in total. Screens at both Broadway/AMC and UA have it in the 4th biggest screens and even sharing a screen with another film. Admissions is behind The Wind Rises although weekday admissions are a lot weaker than weekend. Last Sunday, it jumped 20%+ from Saturday. A bit of good news for Frozen is that Golden Harvest is supporting it over The Wind Rises. It's not much but it's something.

Walking with Dinosaurs got shafted. I guess prehistoric creatures just don't interest Hong Kong crowds. This one is getting just 2-3 showtimes at almost every location.

As for holdovers, The Hobbit 2 is getting mixed feedback from different theater chains. The more expensive theaters are holding onto The Hobbit 2 more with it getting about 4-5 showtimes whereas rural theaters are dumping this for new movies or giving it a measly showtime in the morning. Theater owners are definitely not in a forgiving mood this winter. After last year's disappointing venture with The Hobbit and excessive ticket pricing, theaters are not going through that same process again.

The White Storm is getting crushed by Firestorm at Broadway/AMC but has carved out a few showtimes or even 1 screen at UA/MCL/GH. It had a pretty decent 2nd weekend drop so theaters aren't to kick it out over a new film just yet.

No Breathing and Free Birds are the big losers this week. No Breathing gasped for air on opening weekend and has been holding its breath ever since. Free Birds will get attacked from all sides this week with 3 different types of family films lined up.

Thursday pre-sales at Langham Place for the expected top 6 movies

Langham Place
	Firestorm 3D					Frozen	(all v.)				The Wind Rises	(all v.)
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Dec. 19	9:10 AM	3	202	1.49%	Dec. 19	9:10 AM	2	191	1.05%	Dec. 19	9:05 AM	20	180	11.11%
	11:20 AM	4	202	1.98%		11:50 AM	3	191	1.57%		10:45 AM	5	180	2.78%
	1:30 PM	9	202	4.46%		1:15 PM	2	180	1.11%		2:00 PM	44	191	23.04%
	3:40 PM	11	202	5.45%		5:50 PM	12	180	6.67%		4:30 PM	37	191	19.37%
	5:50 PM	22	202	10.89%							7:20 PM	124	180	68.89%
	7:20 PM	26	202	12.87%							9:50 PM	69	180	38.33%
	8:00 PM	63	202	31.19%
	9:45 PM	32	191	16.75%
	10:10 PM	26	202	12.87%
	12:20 AM	7	202	3.47%
	12:35 AM	0	187	0.00%
Total		203	2196	9.24%	Total		19	742	2.56%	Total		299	1102	27.13%

Langham Place
	The White Storm					Walking With Dinosaurs	(all v.)				The Hobbit	(all v.)
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Dec. 19	9:00 AM	3	202	1.49%	Dec. 19	9:00 AM	1	180	0.56%	Dec. 19	8:50 AM	5	187	2.67%
	11:20 AM	4	191	2.09%		11:35 AM	4	202	1.98%		11:30 AM	10	180	5.56%
	1:55 PM	12	191	6.28%		3:25 PM	9	176	5.11%		1:20 PM	4	202	1.98%
	4:30 PM	12	191	6.28%							4:20 PM	18	202	8.91%
	5:15 PM	14	180	7.78%							7:00 PM	44	187	23.53%
	7:10 PM	63	191	32.98%							9:30 PM	24	202	11.88%
	7:50 PM	113	180	62.78%							10:25 PM	15	180	8.33%
	10:00 PM	35	191	18.32%							12:15 AM	0	176	0.00%
	12:00 AM	0	191	0.00%							12:30 AM	0	202	0.00%
Total		256	1708	14.99%	Total		14	558	2.51%	Total		120	1718	6.98%

At the busiest theater in HK, Firestorm is doing pretty bad. 3D is mainly the sole cause to blame for the sluggish sales here as other theaters are reporting very high ticket sales for the 2D version. Frozen's pre-sales are horrible. It is doing slightly better elsewhere but it's still well behind Firestorm, The White Storm and The Wind Rises in admissions. The White Storm is holding its ground at Langham Place but because of the disparity between Broadway/AMC vs. all of the other theater chains, The White Storm will have trouble dropping less than 50% this weekend. Walking with Dinosaurs is a travesty. What a disaster. Hobbit 2's pre-sales continue to be poor but its high ticket prices will ensure that Hobbit places in the top 3 this weekend. The Wind Rises is doing stellar business. It will get a screen adjustment this weekend.

Happy to see The Wind Rises doing really well here, this will help it towards making $150 million+ worldwide.

Without a Best Animated Picture nomination and/or win, it's going to finish around $125 million in Japan. And with a nomination and/or win, it'll receive a wide expansion and go much higher and could do $150 million in Japan alone. Spirited Away had already beat Titanic before being nominated and winning Best Animated Feature, but the win at the Oscars really propelled it to unreachable levels in the market.

France and South Korea should be solid markets, too. I doubt it has much potential in the States, though, given the subject manner and being PG-13 will probably keep it's audience limited. The English voice cast is impressive at least.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt — main character Jiro Horikoshi
Emily Blunt — love interest Nahoko Satomi
John Krasinski — Honjo, Jiro’s college pal and fellow aviation engineer
Martin Short — Kurokawa, Jiro’s grumpy boss
Stanley Tucci — Caproni, Italian airplane creator
Mandy Patinkin — Hattori, senior designer at Mitsubishi
William H. Macy — Satomi, Nahoko’s father
Werner Herzog — the mysterious Castorp
Mae Whitman — Kayo, Jiro’s younger sister, as well as Kinu, Nahoko’s caretaker
Jennifer Grey — Mrs. Kurokawa
Darren Criss — Katayama, one of Jiro’s engineering colleagues
Elijah Wood — Sone, another of Jiro’s colleagues
Ronan Farrow — Mitsubishi employee

December 19 Weekend

The top 6 this weekend all disappointed to varying degrees this weekend as none of them really took the ball and ran away with it this weekend. Box office was down about 15-20% from the same weekend last year.

Firestorm was #1 but it had very good promotion and Andy Lau is coming off a fly-by in Cold War which was one of the big surprises of 2012. Weekend increase did not see much of a bump and on Monday, it barely beat Frozen in admissions. Altogether with the 4-day weekend and previews last weekend, it has made nearly $1.16m. It'll still pass 2.5m but 3-3.5m will be its end.

In 2nd, The Hobbit couldn't find its legs and dropped around 50%. It has made 2.56m in 11 days but beating An Unexpected Journey is out of the question. 4m should happen although it will be a close race.

The Wind Rises took #3. While it manage to beat out the much hyped Frozen, by Hayao Miyazaki standards, it was a ho-hum performance. Even though it placed 2nd in admissions on Thursday, its screens got cut in favour of Frozen and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Admissions have faded a bit and reviews have reflected the slumping admissions on Monday. Though admissions have not exceeded expectations, it will hold very well on its 2nd weekend. So far it has made $644,000 and 2m is at least assured but for myself and even theater operators, we all were expecting more from Hayao Miyazaki's final directorial film.

Frozen landed in 4th. It had very strong marketing and theaters were relying on Frozen to carry the kids crowd this weekend but it never materialized. Theaters placed this in the biggest screens in the afternoon but pre-sales were pretty weak, suggesting that many families were not interested. Including week long sneaks, it has amassed just $580,000. It is already behind Wreck-It Ralph's running total and will fall hard after the holidays are over. Pending final grosses, through the December 12/13 weekend, Hong Kong is the only territory (foreign or domestic) where Frozen did not beat Wreck It Ralph's opening weekend. Also that statistic is made worse when you compare Frozen's week-long sneaks to Wreck It Ralph's weekend previews. Frozen's previews did it a disservice as this allowed negative word of mouth to spread through to this week. Reviews are middling and I don't expect it to last very long.

The White Storm was #5. It got steamrolled by Firestorm at Broadway/AMC but managed a high admissions rate per showing. In 18 days, it has already banked $3.35m and is looking ahead to 4m. I think it has enough momentum to get there.

Walking With Dinosaurs checked in at #6 with only $128,000. Families were not interested in this and ignored it as they had plenty of kids movies to choose from this weekend. This is a disaster and should leave theaters in a jiffy with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 set to be fully released on Christmas.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty got an early start with previews beginning on Saturday. It did alright but it looks like it will just be another movie in the marketplace and not a big ticket item.

	Wednesday adm.				December 25
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Firestorm	--	34,674	--	--
2	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	--	22,433	--	--
3	Frozen	--	21,790	--	--
4	The Wind Rises	--	16,844	--	--
5	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	--	15,482	--	--
6	The White Storm	--	9,538	--	--
7	Walking With Dinosaurs	--	8,003	--	--
8	As The Light Goes Out	--	7,393	--	--
9	Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2	--	7,390	--	--
10	47 Ronin	--	6,481	--	--

The top 10 is down 11% in admissions from last Christmas.

Firestorm closed off Christmas 2013 with a strong afternoon session and overtook Frozen. While its performance can be considered as good, there are cracks forming in its admissions. It is off about 9% from its opening Saturday admissions which is not great. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty did fairly well. Reviews coming in are very positive...a good sign for its run over the holiday period. Frozen has had pretty good pre-sales but walk-ins are not biting for the toon. Although it did better than Wreck-It Ralph on December 23 and Christmas Eve, it lost to Ralph by more than 3,000 admissions on Christmas Day. The Wind Rises has been surprising to track. Pre-sales tell a much different story from its screen count. It was downsized by theaters this week even though its pre-sales have been pretty good. Its admissions per showing is one of the highest (if not the highest) in the top 10. The Hobbit 2 continues to fall behind Frozen and The Wind Rises as each day passes. Not good at all. The White Storm is still doing very well even with Firestorm and As The Light Goes Out directly competing for screens. Walking With Dinosaurs has somewhat recovered from its sleepy start. Good sneaks for As The Light Goes Out. OK for Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Awful for 47 Ronin.

Comparison of This Year's and Last Year's Top 5 Films on Christmas Day

Firestorm vs. Twilight BD2 (#1 film): -12.2%
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty vs. Les Misérables (Christmas Day opener): -2.7%
Frozen vs. Wreck-It Ralph (Disney cartoon): -12.4%
The Wind Rises vs. CZ12: -29.2%
The Hobbit 2 vs. The Hobbit: -39.4%

Major ouch for The Hobbit 2. Yikes.

Boxing Day Admissions

	Thursday adm.				December 26
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	--	22,761	--	+1.5%
2	Firestorm	--	21,632	--	-37.6%
3	Frozen	--	18,950	--	-13.0%
4	The Wind Rises	--	14,328	--	-14.9%
5	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	--	11,338	--	-26.8%
6	Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2	--	8,387	--	+13.5%
7	As The Light Goes Out	--	8,245	--	+11.5%
8	47 Ronin	--	7,363	--	+13.6%
9	Walking With Dinosaurs	--	6,578	--	-17.8%
10	The White Storm	--	5,910	--	-38.0%

All the Christmas Day openers increased. Very good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This is turning out to be the lone bright spot of the past 2 days. For the holdovers, it was the complete opposite, as all of them fell more than 10% from Christmas. Firestorm descended back to earth. Huge admissions loss from Christmas Day (-13,000 admissions). Not great for Frozen. It only increased by 5,800 admissions from pre-sales to final numbers. It's still better than The Wind Rises which only managed a meager 3,500 admissions from walk-ins. The Hobbit 2 blew more than a quarter in admissions from Christmas. Although falling harder than most is to be expected for The Hobbit, The Hobbit 2 nearly doubled its admissions % loss from The Hobbit on Boxing Day last year. OK for Cloudy 2. Pretty good for As The Light Goes Out. It is not getting much Broadway/AMC support at all and many theaters are giving it just 1 or 2 showtimes elsewhere so it is off to a fiery start so far. Not good for 47 Ronin. Not good for Walking With Dinosaurs. The White Storm has had its showtimes cut ever since Christmas and it has been left with very late or very early showtimes. It has taken a huge dive the past week.

Compare this with the holds from last year's top 10 on December 26. Last year, 5 films scored drops below 10% and 8 films eased less than 20%. This year, all holdovers knocked off 13% or more from their Christmas Day admissions.

	Saturday				December 28
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	--	21,424	--	--
2	Firestorm	--	13,154	--	--
3	Frozen	--	11,387	--	--
4	The Wind Rises	--	10,476	--	--
5	As The Light Goes Out	--	8,479	--	--
6	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	--	8,171	--	--
7	Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2	--	6,200	--	--
8	47 Ronin	--	5,685	--	--
9	The White Storm	--	4,227	--	--
10	Walking With Dinosaurs	--	3,616	--	--

Strong for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Abysmal for Firestorm. It has eroded nearly 2/3 of its opening Saturday business in just 1 week. Not good for Frozen or The Wind Rises. For Frozen, the gap between itself and The Wind Rises has been shrinking since Christmas. The Wind Rises even managed to beat it in pre-sales today but it passed The Wind Rises due to having a tiny bit better walk-ins than the Japanese anime. Meanwhile, The Wind Rises has suffered due to a lack of theater support. Frozen has at least twice or almost triple the seat count of The Wind Rises but has not really pulled away from The Wind Rises its whole run. Incredible for As the Light Goes Out. Powerful sneaks so far considering the limited showtimes it has.

Dec. 28 (Saturday) vs. Boxing Day 2013 Comparison

Rank	Movie	Sat. adm.	% chg from Dec. 26
1	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	21,424	-4.5%
2	Firestorm	13,154	-62.1%
3	Frozen	11,387	-47.7%
4	The Wind Rises	10,476	-37.8%
5	As The Light Goes Out	8,479	+14.7%
6	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	8,171	-47.2%
7	Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2	6,200	-16.1%
8	47 Ronin	5,685	-12.3%
9	The White Storm	4,227	-55.7%
10	Walking With Dinosaurs	3,616	-54.8%

Quite good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Disastrous for Firestorm. I have never seen such massive erosion before especially when the non-holiday in question is a Saturday. Frozen is just riding the holidays here. I see it dropping more than 65% next week. The Wind Rises isn't holding much better than Frozen but it could sneak out a few admission wins during the next week over Frozen. Wonderful for As The Light Goes Out.

While Walter Mitty is No. 1 admission-wise, Hobbit 2 and Frozen are ahead of it in gross.

Firestorm and The White Storm are still playing strong. This is a pretty good December for Chinese-language movies.

Walter Mitty won Saturday by a fairly large margin. I'm not sure what you are referring to.

I disagree. The White Storm has lost a lot of showtimes since Christmas which has caused its admissions to freefall however, it still has high admissions per showing. Firestorm has ceded a lot of admissions since Christmas. It won by over 12,000 admissions over Walter Mitty on Christmas but is now running behind Mitty by 8,000 admissions despite the huge theater support from Broadway/AMC. Overall though, The White Storm and Firestorm are huge successes this winter.

Oh my mistake. I've not been reading carefully. I was looking at the Sunday tracking numbers, not aware of them being still early. Right now (3:55pm HKT), Walter Mitty is leading with 14,376 tickets sold and HK$1,011,545. Frozen is close behind with 11,216 and $912,470. The Hobbit is not far with 7,051 and HK$877,140.