Seventh Son is the Jeff Bridges film that was rescheduled domestically?

Didn't even know it was an area. Awesome. I shall go now!!

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		January 9
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	As The Light Goes Out	4,453	2,507	-43.7%
2	Tom Yum Goong 2	--	1,605	--
3	Last Vegas	--	934	--
4	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	1,504	932	-38.0%
5	Girl in the Sunny Place	--	766	--
6	The Legend of Hercules	--	709	--
7	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	779	363	-53.4%
8	Lan Kwai Fong 3	813	352	-56.7%
9	The Wind Rises	749	215	-71.3%
10	Firestorm	551	202	-63.3%

		Thursday			January 9
LW Rank	TW Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	1	As The Light Goes Out	16,245	10,519	-35.2%
--	2	Tom Yum Goong 2	--	5,421	--
2	3	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	7,848	4,316	-45.0%
--	4	Last Vegas	--	3,399	--
--	5	The Legend of Hercules	--	2,819	--
--	6	Girl in the Sunny Place	--	2,247	--
3	7	Lan Kwai Fong 3	4,987	1,832	-63.3%
6	8	Firestorm	2,514	982	-60.9%
5	9	The Wind Rises	2,813	899	-68.0%
7	10	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	2,013	761	-62.2%

Excellent hold for As The Light Goes Out. Walk-ins contributed 3/4 of Thursday's admissions. 3m is happening. Weak start from Tom Yum Goong 2. Very good hold for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 3m is moving closer to a lock. Average for Last Vegas. Poor for The Legend of Hercules. OK for Girl in the Sunny Place. Lan Kwai Fong 3 is holding softly. After last week's freefall, Firestorm reined it in somewhat this week. Not good for The Wind Rises. Decent hold for The Hobbit 2.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			January 10
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	As The Light Goes Out	6,662	4,293	-35.6%	+71.2%
2	Last Vegas	--	1,914	--	+104.9%
3	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	3,028	1,879	-37.9%	+101.6%
4	Tom Yum Goong 2	--	1,590	--	-0.9%
5	Girl in the Sunny Place	--	1,118	--	+46.0%
6	The Legend of Hercules	--	978	--	+37.9%
7	The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug	931	448	-51.9%	+23.4%
8	Lan Kwai Fong 3	1,010	410	-59.4%	+16.5%
9	The Wind Rises	1,143	338	-70.4%	+57.2%
10	Commitment	740	293	-60.4%	--

Huge movement from Last Vegas. As the Light Goes Out/Walter Mitty continue to hold strongly.

Yes. Now, it looks like the film has been put off until further notice.

In limited release, Blue Is the Warmest Color did fine in its second week. It has grossed more than double Polanski's Venus in Fur.

I wish Grudge Match would hurry up and get released. I want to see it!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier heads to theaters this Thursday but so far ticket sales have been underwhelming. 3D sales at most locations are not even half full yet 3-4 days out in the biggest theaters. Some theaters have even had pre-sales out for almost 2 weeks so this is not good news. Then again, The Amazing Spider-Man had big trouble with pre-sales before cleaning up nicely with walk-ins. Still, this is the first big movie of the year and how this does in 3D could have lasting impacts on the rest of the summer fare to come.

Meanwhile, local film The Midnight After releases the week after on April 10 and it is doing exceptionally well. In just one day, it has already averaged over 50% in ticket sales at Langham Place on both Thursday and Friday. Although tickets are being snapped up fast, walk-ins will be slow as many will have made up their minds to watch it or not. Interest is super high though and being a Cat. III movie makes the big pre-sales all the more remarkable.

Captain America 2 is receiving nearly universal acclaim but the damage caused by the first film will fizzle any plans of a huge opening weekend here. I see it in the 1.8-1.9m range. The Saturday holiday will determine its opening weekend chances of beating Thor 2's opening weekend.

Back to The Midnight After where reports are coming out that the film is not good and such but for this type of film, reviews won't matter. I think it could target a 1.5m opening but not much more than that because they still need to give Captain America 2 some screens. I think the most screens they will put The Midnight After on is 3 or maybe even 3.5 screens with it sharing with either Captain America 2 or with another holdover.

This will be an interesting battle to watch. The Midnight After could end up beating Captain America 2's total if these fast pre-sales continue. Right now, I give a 60% edge to Captain America 2 due to 3D ticket prices and the holiday.

Thursday Schedules

Palace APM
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D - 10 showings	Noah - 4 showings (▲ 3)	3AM Part 2
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 4 showings	Horseplay - 1 showing (▼ 5)	Noah 3D
Naked Ambition 3D - 6 showings	Kano - 1 showing (▼ 3)	Divergent
Naked Ambition - 4 showings	Black Comedy - 1 showing (▼ 6)	Need for Speed
A Tale of Samurai Cooking: A True Love Story - 5 showings	Non-Stop - 1 showing (▼ 5)	12 Years A Slave

Cityplaza
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D - 10 showings	Noah 3D - 1 showing (▼ 5)	Horseplay
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 2 showings	Noah - 2 showings (=)	The Grand Budapest Hotel
Naked Ambition 3D - 4 showings	Divergent - 1 showing (▼ 4)	Beijing Love Story
Naked Ambition - 2 showings	Non-Stop - 1 showing (▼ 4)	Her
Twelve Nights - 4 showings

Langham Place
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D - 16 showings	Noah 3D - 2 showings (▼ 6)	3AM Part 2
Naked Ambition 3D - 10 showings	Divergent - 2 showings (▼ 5)	3 Days to Kill
Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 - 3 showings	Kano - 1 showing (▼ 3)	Horseplay
		Black Comedy
		Noah
		Non-Stop

So Captain America 2 gets 3 screens total. It's not bad but I doubt it will gain more screens this weekend. Right now it is occupying the biggest or 2nd biggest theaters then a middle screen (3rd biggest screen) then another small screen (2nd smallest or smallest theater). The best it can hope for is to snatch away the biggest or the 2nd biggest screen from Naked Ambition, therefore owning the 2 biggest theaters on Saturday and Sunday.

Naked Ambition isn't doing too shabby despite the Cat. III rating and going up against a Hollywood blockbuster. It is enjoying 1 screen at almost all locations and in some cases, theaters have given it an additional screen at night.

Pre-sales

Let's check in on Captain America 2 as it enters the HK market on Thursday.

Palace APM
	Captain America 2 3D						Captain America 2
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Apr. 3	11:25 AM	61	286	21.33%	Apr. 3	12:10 PM	24	114	21.05%
	2:00 PM	16	286	5.59%		2:40 PM	6	114	5.26%
	3:00 PM	46	112	41.07%		5:10 PM	14	114	12.28%
	4:35 PM	30	286	10.49%		7:40 PM	52	114	45.61%
	5:30 PM	9	112	8.04%
	7:10 PM	116	286	40.56%
	8:00 PM	16	112	14.29%
	9:45 PM	81	286	28.32%
	10:15 PM	4	114	3.51%
	12:15 AM	29	286	10.14%
Total		408	2166	18.84%	Total		96	456	21.05%

Pre-sales aren't good. It's on the same level as The Amazing Spider-Man's pre-sales 2 days out with much less screens. Back then, The Amazing Spider-Man had the whole marketplace to itself while Captain America 2 has to contend with Naked Ambition 3D this week. Although Naked Ambition caters to an entirely different audience, it is still garnering attention and theaters will support this even with huge ticket sales from Captain America 2.

Looking further ahead to next week, The Midnight After is off to a great start at Langham Place.

Langham Place
	The Midnight After
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Apr. 10	7:40 PM	156	202	77.23%
	9:40 PM	141	191	73.82%
Total		297	393	75.57%
Apr. 11	7:40 PM	141	202	69.80%
	9:40 PM	145	191	75.92%
Total		286	393	72.77%
2-day total		583	786	74.17%

Excellent numbers all around. Very strong numbers for the 9 PM showings. Opening day will be slightly inflated due to the high interest but the slim Friday dip is nothing to worry about at this point.

Captain America 2 - Opening day pre-sales at Palace APM

Palace APM
	Captain America 2 3D						Captain America 2
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Apr. 3	11:25 AM	109	286	38.11%	Apr. 3	12:10 PM	51	114	44.74%
	2:00 PM	24	286	8.39%		2:40 PM	30	114	26.32%
	3:00 PM	46	112	41.07%		5:10 PM	34	114	29.82%
	4:35 PM	32	286	11.19%		7:40 PM	92	114	80.70%
	5:30 PM	13	112	11.61%
	7:10 PM	141	286	49.30%
	8:00 PM	50	112	44.64%
	9:45 PM	96	286	33.57%
	10:15 PM	13	114	11.40%
	12:15 AM	43	286	15.03%
Total		567	2166	26.18%	Total		207	456	45.39%

Captain America 2 has fallen off The Amazing Spider-Man's pace with less than 12 hours to go.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		April 3
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	13,794	--
2	Naked Ambition	--	3,581	--
3	Noah	--	1,057	--
4	Nymphomaniac: Volume 1	--	498	--
5	Twelve Nights	--	426	--
6	Kano	--	236	--
7	Divergent	--	202	--
8	Horseplay	--	197	--
9	Non-Stop	--	171	--
10	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	130	--

Captain America 2 opening day pre-sales: 13,794
Captain America opening day pre-sales: 11,135*
% chg: +23.9%
* 3D admissions only

The first Captain America really hurt the 2nd's opening day pre-sales along with the holiday. The holiday will push the admissions back to Friday/Saturday/Sunday so expect huge increases the next couple of days.

Decent for Naked Ambition. Noah got crushed under Captain America's weight. Not bad for Nymphomaniac: Volume 1.

Good to see you back, Bluebomb.

	Thursday			April 3
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	30,942	--
2	Naked Ambition	--	11,397	--
3	Noah	--	3,029	--
4	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	1,079	--
5	Non-Stop	--	1,033	--
6	Kano	--	963	--
7	Twelve Nights	--	938	--
8	Horseplay	--	804	--
9	Divergent	--	799	--
10	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	488	--

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Captain America	31,438	24,473*	45,938	33,602*	135,451
Captain America 2	30,942				30,942
Gap	-496	-24,969	-70,907	-104,509

* Captain America's Friday and Sunday's admissions do not include its 2D admissions.

It's never good to see the sequel down from the predecessor's opening day regardless of the situation it's in. It's the only blockbuster superhero sequel to have fallen from its original in the past few years. The holiday will perk things up a bit but looks like the WOM from the first film did major damage to its opening weekend.

Reviews for Captain America 2 are coming in and opening day viewers have not been kind. It has scored just a 74% average, down from almost all recent superhero movies. I think that opening day reviews won't matter as much than the family/male crowd who will see it this weekend. Its average should go up this weekend with families/males/couples dominating the seats.

Naked Ambition did fairly well on opening day. Reviews seem to be mixed, however. It won't get much of a boost from the holiday as Cat. III rated movies usually gets the weakest bumps from the holidays.

Noah crashed hard with Captain America 2 opening. The holiday may be able to salvage a deceitful drop of around 55-60% this weekend.

OK for Nymphomaniac Volume 1. It was inflated thanks to Cinematheque but it averaged over 130 people per theater on Thursday.

Big gain for Non-Stop throughout the day. It achieved a 6 multiplier from pre-sales to final numbers. WOM is very strong for this film. It should be able to play for a few more weeks here.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			April 4
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	19,395	--	+40.6%
2	Naked Ambition	--	4,650	--	+29.9%
3	Noah	--	1,691	--	+60.0%
4	Kano	--	804	--	+240.7%
5	Twelve Nights	--	641	--	+50.5%
6	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	582	--	+16.9%
7	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	376	--	+189.2%
8	Non-Stop	--	341	--	+99.4%
9	Divergent	--	340	--	+72.6%
10	Horseplay	--	295	--	--

OK for Captain America 2. It is well ahead of Captain America's opening Friday pre-sales. It should be able to get at least 45,000 admissions today with a shot at 50,000.

So Non-Stop was also released this weekend?

I saw Non-Stop in HK last weekend. It was released last weekend (or the weekend before). I also saw Noah. It's very hard to judge how audiences felt about the film, but it was packed, so I guess the interest is there.

Nope. It came out 3 weeks ago on March 13.

April 3 Thursday Actuals

1. Captain America: The Winder Soldier - $451,198 (+85.7% from Captain America OD, opening day actual)
2. Naked Ambition - $154,702 (opening day actual)
3. Noah - $825,077
Nymphomaniac Volume 1 - $7,735 (opening day actual)
Kano - $177,907
Twelve Nights - $6,445 (opening day actual)
Non-Stop - $1,830,641

Good opening day for Captain America 2. It looks like the admissions site is having some issues. It will target more than 2.5m this weekend. Naked Ambition opened well. In the face of tough competition, it is aiming for $750,000 in 4 days. Noah's 2nd Thursday fell about 70% from opening day. The holiday will probably be able to push it past 1m although it won't get much farther than that. Nymphomaniac did not do that well in gross. Expectations were a bit higher for this film since it deals with a controversial subject matter. Kano dealt the Captain America 2/Naked Ambition 2 duo well and fell less than 50%. Let's see if it can possibly get to $400,000 or maybe even $500,000. Documentary Twelve Nights was slow out of the gate with a variety of movies showing this week. Though it boasts Giddens, the director of You Are the Apple of My Eye, documentaries tend to perform poorly in Hong Kong and with Nymphomaniac seizing interest away, Twelve Nights could not hoard the alternative crowd for itself. Non-Stop is doing very well. 2m should be broken by next week.

	Friday				April 4
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	37,871	--	+22.4%
2	Naked Ambition	--	12,990	--	+14.0%
3	Noah	--	4,084	--	+34.8%
4	Kano	--	1,643	--	+70.6%
5	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	1,232	--	+14.2%
6	Twelve Nights	--	1,131	--	+20.6%
7	Divergent	--	988	--	+23.7%
8	Non-Stop	--	971	--	-6.0%
9	Horseplay	--	839	--	+4.4%
10	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	729	--	+49.4%

Take these admissions with a grain of salt.

Captain America 2 OW Projections

Thu: $451,000
Fri: $550,000 (+22%)
Sat: $950,000 (+73%)
Sun: $850,000 (-11%)
Total: $2,801,000 (+130% from Captain America OW)

Captain America 2 will soar on Saturday and come down a notch on Sunday. It will at least double Captain America's OW.

Naked Ambition OW Projections
Thu: $155,000
Fri: $175,000 (+13%)
Sat: $220,000 (+26%)
Sun: $200,000 (-9%)
Total: $750,000

Naked Ambition is not looking too shabby either. Top 2 should combine for nearly/at least 3.5m.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			April 5
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	40,481	--	+108.7%
2	Naked Ambition	--	6,566	--	+41.2%
3	Noah	--	3,478	--	+105.7%
4	Kano	--	1,766	--	+119.7%
5	Twelve Nights	--	1,033	--	+61.2%
6	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	883	--	+134.8%
7	Non-Stop	--	882	--	+158.7%
8	Divergent	--	759	--	+123.2%
9	Horseplay	--	624	--	+111.5%
10	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	466	--	-19.9%

Now that's more like it.

Captain America flourishes. As expected, the two Cat. III openers had the smallest gains on the holiday. Pretty nice for the rest with the exception of Twelve Nights.

While we're all basking in the glow of Captain America 2's strong opening weekend, another movie has entered the record books for something else. Gravity is entering its 27th weekend in release and ties 3 Idiots for most weeks in release since BOM started tracking Hong Kong in 2002.

Aside from this week, next week is shaping up to be another astonishing weekend.

The One
	The Midnight After
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Apr. 10	11:20 AM	15	163	9.20%
	1:30 PM	8	163	4.91%
	3:40 PM	18	163	11.04%
	5:50 PM	28	163	17.18%
	8:00 PM	121	163	74.23%
	10:15 PM	82	163	50.31%
	12:30 AM	4	163	2.45%
Total		276	1141	24.19%
Apr. 11	11:20 AM	11	163	6.75%
	1:30 PM	12	163	7.36%
	3:40 PM	6	163	3.68%
	5:50 PM	13	163	7.98%
	8:00 PM	131	163	80.37%
	10:15 PM	109	163	66.87%
	12:30 AM	6	163	3.68%
Total		288	1141	25.24%
2-day total		564	2282	24.72%

Superb for The Midnight After. I can't see this getting any less than 3 screens at most locations (especially at night). 5 days out with holiday weekend pre-selling to go and both 8 PM showtimes are 3/4 full. 25% of tickets have been sold for both days, which is very good. It'll make more than 1m next weekend.

	Saturday				April 5
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	72,031	--	+90.2%
2	Naked Ambition	--	18,696	--	+43.9%
3	Noah	--	7,523	--	+84.2%
4	Kano	--	3,249	--	+97.7%
5	Non-Stop	--	2,386	--	+145.7%
6	Divergent	--	2,157	--	+118.3%
7	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	2,087	--	+186.3%
8	Twelve Nights	--	1,942	--	+71.7%
9	Horseplay	--	1,478	--	+76.2%
10	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	1,372	--	+11.4%

Incredible for Captain America 2. It now has a shot at 3m this weekend. Naked Ambition didn't do too badly considering the III rating. Noah had an OK increase today. Good for Kano. Fantastic for Non-Stop. Divergent had a nice bump. Great for The Great Budapest Hotel.

Updated Captain America 2 OW Projections

Thu: $451,000
Fri: $550,000 (+22%)
Sat: $1,050,000 (+73%)
Sun: $950,000 (-11%)
Total: $3,001,000 (+147% from Captain America OW)

Huge Saturday puts Captain America 2 within striking distance of 3m.

Naked Ambition OW Projections
Thu: $155,000
Fri: $175,000 (+13%)
Sat: $250,000 (+43%)
Sun: $220,000 (-12%)
Total: $800,000

Similarly, Naked Ambition's better than expected Saturday has put it on course for $800,000.

There is certainly a market for Christians there.

Welcome back again, Bluebomb.

We missed a very interesting January and February in Hong Kong.

Some highlights:

- Jackie Chan's mainland-endorsed "Police Story 2013" bombed hard on a dumpster weekend in January, making just over $200,000.

- Chinese New Year holiday saw four Chinese language movies dominating the screens, led by "Golden Chicken SSS", a comedy centered around a prostitute. Hollywoodies "Jack Ryan" and "Saving Mr. Banks" didn't seem to catch on.

- Mid-February was the complete opposite of the Chinese New Year holiday. A slew of Hollywood offerings, including "Lego", "Robocop", and "The Wolf of Wall Street", dominated the box office. Local movies took a back seat. For one particular weekend in February, the top 10 grossers were all from the US.

- There was so much competition, maybe too much. None of the Hollywood releases really stood out, barring "The Wolf of Wall Street", which is currently #3 of the year. On average, four movies hit the theaters per week in wide or medium scale, competing for showtimes.

Currently, Sunday 9am HKT, Captain America 2 is reigning supreme, selling more than 38,000 tickets and ahead of second place by almost 6-to-1.

NC-17 softporn parody Naked Ambition 3D is holding its own, stripping nearly 7,000 stubs off the tickets.

Noah is #3, selling close to 3,000 tickets.

That Taiwanese baseball movie KANO has a surprisingly great hold at #4, with almost 2,000 tickets sold.

Divergent is doing fine at #5, with 1,200 tickets sold.

Twelve Nights, the Taiwanese documentary about dog pounds and their "cruel" treatment, is doing great for a foreign documentary at #6.

In limited release, Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 is limp at #10, barely ahead of Japanese A Tale of Samurai Cooking (#11). It is far behind The Grand Budapest Hotel (#7), which again has a good hold in its third week. It should ask #2 holder Naked Ambition for some Viagra.

As of 1:50pm HKT:

#1. (NEW) Captain America 2 48,802 tickets sold
2. (NEW) Naked Ambition 3D (Hong Kong) 9,700
3. Noah 4,136
4. KANO (Taiwan) 2,502
5. Divergent 1,892
6. Non-Stop 1,781
7. (NEW) Twelve Nights (Taiwan) 1,747
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel 1,528
9. Horseplay (Hong Kong) 1,145
10. (NEW) Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 (Denmark) 562
11. (NEW) A Tale of Samurai Cooking (Japan) 523
12. Her 433
13. Mr. Peabody & Sherman 372
14. The Lunchbox (India) 300
15. Nebraska 242
16. (NEW) That Awkward Moment
17. (NEW) On the Way to School (France)
18. Black Comedy (Hong Kong)
19. 3 Days to Kill
20. (NEW) Twice Born (Italy)

Gravity is still playing on one screen. Same with The Great Beauty, the Oscar's Best Foreign Picture winner.

I think Noah is playing more to the action/adventure crowd than any religious group. Noah fell 70% on its 2nd Thursday after Captain America 2 opened.


Chinese New Year Hollywood fare was very weak this year. They should have stuck to Jack Ryan releasing during Christmas time.

The Wolf of Wall Street was a huge winner in the first quarter and is one of the top 3 surprises from January-March.

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			April 6
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	35,533	--	-12.2%
2	Naked Ambition	--	5,959	--	-9.2%
3	Noah	--	2,590	--	-25.5%
4	Kano	--	1,757	--	-0.5%
5	Twelve Nights	--	1,272	--	+23.1%
6	Divergent	--	1,036	--	+36.5%
7	Non-Stop	--	843	--	-4.4%
8	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	795	--	-10.0%
9	Horseplay	--	699	--	+12.0%
10	A Tale of Samurai Cooking - A True Love Story	--	380	--	--

Quite a big drop for Captain America 2. Not good for Naked Ambition. Ouch for Noah. Very good for Kano. Nice increases for Twelve Nights and Divergent.

	Sunday				April 6
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	63,688	--	-11.6%
2	Naked Ambition	--	17,474	--	-6.5%
3	Noah	--	5,723	--	-23.9%
4	Kano	--	3,124	--	-3.8%
5	Non-Stop	--	2,311	--	-3.1%
6	Divergent	--	2,246	--	+4.1%
7	Twelve Nights	--	2,182	--	+4.6%
8	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	2,173	--	+4.1%
9	Horseplay	--	1,450	--	-1.9%
10	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	1,065	--	-22.4%

Over 10% drop for Captain America on Sunday. Not good. Terrible for Noah. Good holds for everything else except Nymphomaniac Volume 1, which has fizzled out completely in just a few days.

	Weekend adm.			Apr 3-6
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	--	204,532	--
2	Naked Ambition	--	60,557	--
3	Noah	--	20,359	--
4	Kano	--	9,095	--
5	Non-Stop	--	6,701	--
6	Twelve Nights	--	6,193	--
7	Divergent	--	6,190	--
8	The Grand Budapest Hotel	--	5,477	--
9	Nymphomaniac Volume 1	--	4,748	--
10	Horseplay	--	4,571	--

April 3 Weekend Estimates
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier - $2,980,000
2. Naked Ambition - $820,000

Captain America displaced Noah to take the top spot this week. It more than doubled Captain America's OW as it shot up 145% from the original's OW. What makes its OW even more impressive is the competition it had to contend with. Naked Ambition was definitely no flop as it carried the runner-up position proudly and held its own against tough competition.

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Captain America	31,438	24,473	45,938	33,602	135,451
Captain America 2	30,942	37,871	72,031	63,688	204,532
Gap	-496	12,902	38,995	69,081

For reference's sake. Captain America 2 punched Captain America's lights out in admissions.

Encouraging signs for Captain America 2 is that the family/couples crowd came through for it. Weekend reviews have pushed its rating to an average of 84%, which is considered to be quite high.

Monday admissions (so far)

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 6,389

It fell 54% from its opening day pre-sales. That's not particularly bad but it's not great either.

Onto this week where local film The Midnight After creeps into cineplexes. Theaters will have a tough time deciding on which film to give its biggest screen to. Most have opted for The Midnight After although it is expected that the business district will side with Captain America 2. It's unclear if theaters will give The Midnight After 3 screens at night given Captain America 2's explosion on opening weekend. If theaters do decide to give The Midnight After 3 screens, then most theaters will run with either of these scenarios:
The Midnight After (biggest screen/4th biggest/5th biggest)/Captain America 2 (2nd biggest, 3rd biggest, 6th biggest) or
Captain America 2 (biggest screen/3rd biggest/6th biggest)/The Midnight After (2nd biggest/4th biggest/5th biggest). Holdovers will get slaughtered although Naked Ambition will be granted a stay of execution since it's only going to be in its 2nd week of release.

The Midnight After is adapted from an internet novella, first published on HKGolden forum. The sci-fi horror comedy is fairly popular among Hong Kong webizens. Its box office potential should be similar to that of the 2011 sex comedy Due West, which is also based on a web novel. But unlike Due West, The Midnight After seems less mainstream. It's directed by Fruit Chan, best known for indies Made in Hong Kong and Durian Durian. But The Midnight After is riding on a growing anti-establishment political climate in Hong Kong. Maybe it will be hailed as an accurate reflection of the mood of the city - aging, disgruntled, and cynical.

Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 is currently #7 on Tuesday's ticket sales chart, ahead of The Grand Budapest Hotel and Divergent. I guess it's a weekday movie. This bodes well for Vol. 2, which opens Friday.