HTTYD2 is releasing after Transformers? That cannot be good. BTW Blue is July like a huge month in HK like in the states?

July is huge in Hong Kong. July 1 is a holiday and kids' summer break starts early in the month.

Hmm then fine. Though HTTYD2 releasing this close to Transformers could not be good right? I am sure Transformers also has a good family appeal and the series is just HUGE in HK.

July is almost always the biggest month of the year.

HTTYD 2 releasing one week after is not bad. Even if HTTYD 2 does not get previews on July 1, kids will be off and a lot of demand for Transformers will have been burnt off in the first 6 days. HTTYD was not a big box office hit in HK due to going up against Clash of the Titans in 2010 but with barely any animation releases this summer, HTTYD 2 could have incredible legs. Only Planes 2 is scheduled for release in July and so far August does not have any animation releases lined up.

Animation movies released in July usually wins the summer animation title. In the past 5 years, the highest grossing summer animation movie came in July. The last 2 years have seen early July animated releases come out on top. There is nothing to stop HTTYD 2 from exceeding expectations.

My 1m prediction might be a bit low. Ice Age 3 faced a similar dilemma when it went up against Transformers 2's 2nd weekend but it still bowed to a 1.8m OW. HTTYD is not of the same stature of the Ice Age series so its OW will be lower but if it has good reviews, it could build up some exceptional legs.

Thursday schedules (for new openers)

Festival Walk

New

Godzilla 3D - 6 showings

Godzilla - 2 showings

Neighbors - 7 showings

Hollywood

New

Godzilla 3D - 3 showings

Godzilla - 3 showings

Neighbors - 7 showings

Langham Place

New

Godzilla 3D - 11 showings

Godzilla - 2 showings

Neighbors - 7 showings

Black Butler - 3 showings

Godzilla gets 1 screen at most places with some theaters opting for 2 screens (1 for 3D, 1 for 2D). Neighbors locks down a screen while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 gets 1 screen. Transcendence and Aberdeen are getting the other screens.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		May 15
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Godzilla	--	7,097	--
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	4,587	1,500	-67.3%
3	Neighbors	--	1,208	--
4	Aberdeen	1,722	881	-48.8%
5	Transcendence	1,526	649	-57.5%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	392	--
7	Delete My Love	367	175	-52.3%
8	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	141	--
9	Black Butler	--	130	--
10	The Other Woman	332	94	-71.7%

Not bad for Godzilla. Dreadful for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Bad pre-sales for Neighbors. Good for Aberdeen though it did not face any direct competition this week. OK for Transcendence.

	Thursday			May 15
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Godzilla	--	19,248	--
2	Neighbors	--	6,970	--
3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	12,032	5,084	-57.7%
4	Aberdeen	6,805	3,223	-52.6%
5	Transcendence	5,886	2,690	-54.3%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	1,082	--
7	Delete My Love	1,925	919	-52.3%
8	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	392	--
9	The Other Woman	1,648	341	-79.3%
9	Black Butler	--	283	--

Decent for Godzilla. Huge walk-ins for Neighbors. Not good for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 even though it faced direct competition. It will lose a lot of screens next week. Pretty soft holds for Aberdeen and Transcendence. Terrible for The Eternal Zero. Delete My Love held up quite nicely. Black Coal, Thin Ice got off to a fantastic start in just 2 theaters. It is getting some attention thanks to its Golden Bear win at the Berlin International Film Festival. Ghastly for The Other Woman. Awful for Black Butler.

OD estimates
Godzilla - $232,000
Neighbors - $53,500

Godzilla OW Projection
Thu: $232,000
Fri: $320,000
Sat: $570,000
Sun: $535,000
Total: $1,657,000

Neighbors OW Projection
Thu: $53,500
Fri: $85,000
Sat: $135,000
Sun: $110,000
Total: $383,500

	Friday adm.	(so far)			May 16
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	8,849	--	+24.7%
2	Neighbors	--	2,313	--	+91.5%
3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	7,037	2,197	-68.8%	+46.5%
4	Aberdeen	2,651	1,398	-47.3%	+58.7%
5	Transcendence	2,525	1,235	-51.1%	+90.3%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	432	--	+10.2%
7	Delete My Love	547	253	-53.7%	+44.6%
8	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	174	--	+23.4%
9	Black Butler	--	139	--	+6.9%
10	The Other Woman	660	128	-80.6%	+36.2%

Not a great increase for Godzilla. Neighbors had the best increase of the top 10. Excellent. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continues to hold poorly. OK for Aberdeen and Transcendence.

One week to go before X-Men hits center stage...let's take a look at how it's doing.

The One
	X-Men: Days of Future Past
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
May 22	11:35 AM	16	163	9.82%
	2:10 PM	7	163	4.29%
	4:40 PM	6	163	3.68%
	7:10 PM	14	163	8.59%
	9:40 PM	30	163	18.40%
	12:10 AM	4	163	2.45%
Total		77	978	7.87%

Not particularly good but one sliver of good news is that the 9 PM showtime is selling more seats than the 7 PM showtime. Pre-sales will pick up this weekend although audiences are shunning 3D more and more now.

What is Over3? Overheard 3? I know they dropped another teaser trailer for the movie. It resembled an ad for a property development company's IPO, mocking a property tycoon in the region. Being able to capitalize on a red hot issue in HK, this is gonna open BIG.

Can we officially call this the Japanese movie appreciation week? The three new releases (Godzilla, The Eternal Zero, Black Butler) all in some way originated from Japan.

Yes. I didn't have enough space in the title.

Thursday Actuals

1. Godzilla - $258,001 (opening day actual)
2. Neighbors - $64,500 (opening day actual)
3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $58,050 (Thursday actual)/$6,450,028
4. Aberdeen - $25,800 (Thursday actual)/$774,003 by today
Transcendence - between $21,930 and $25,800 (Thursday actual)/$516,002
The Eternal Zero - $9,030 (opening day actual)/$19,350
Black Coal, Thin Ice - $7,740 (opening day actual)
Delete My Love - $258,001
Heaven Is For Real - $283,801
The Other Woman - $993,304

Good for Godzilla. Neighbors did a nice job. Bad hold for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It will pass 6.5m tomorrow but 7m looks to be a stretch. It needs to have solid increases on Saturday and Sunday to have a shot. Aberdeen and Transcendence are locked in a battle for 4th this weekend. Overall, Aberdeen's total is not that great whereas Transcendence seems to have pulled out a decent gross. Of course, most of that gross can be attributed to Johnny Depp but this shows the starpower of Depp here and around Asia. Poor start for The Eternal Zero. Black Coal, Thin Ice did quite well thanks to the awards circuit boosting its profile. It will easily surpass a $15,000 PTA this weekend. Delete My Love got marginalized this weekend but it looks to be holding alright. Heaven Is For Real continues to rein in audiences and reviews are quite high for this movie. Forget critic reviews for The Other Woman because audience reviews have put this on par with Captain America 2 and Heaven Is For Real. It will pass 1m on Friday.

	Friday				May 16
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	22,686	--	+17.9%
2	Neighbors	--	9,745	--	+39.8%
3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	6,804	--	+33.8%
4	Aberdeen	--	4,255	--	+32.0%
5	Transcendence	--	4,003	--	+48.8%
6	Delete My Love	--	1,492	--	+62.4%
7	The Eternal Zero	--	1,151	--	+6.4%
8	The Other Woman	--	582	--	+70.7%
9	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	468	--	+19.4%
10	Black Butler	--	311	--	+9.9%

OK increase for Godzilla. Nice jump for Neighbors. Solid enough bump for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but holds continue to be a major issue. It will drop another 60% this weekend. Battle rages on between Aberdeen and Transcendence. Very good jump for Delete My Love. It seems to be getting some support. Awful for The Eternal Zero.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			May 17
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	16,893	--	+90.9%
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	4,300	--	+95.7%
3	Neighbors	--	3,299	--	+42.6%
4	Aberdeen	--	2,160	--	+54.5%
5	Transcendence	--	1,781	--	+44.2%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	725	--	+67.8%
7	Delete My Love	--	539	--	+113.0%
8	The Other Woman	--	309	--	+141.4%
9	Black Butler	--	174	--	+25.2%
10	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	167	--	-4.0%

Excellent increases for the top 2. Neighbors is on a slow but steady pace this weekend. Aberdeen leaps to its biggest lead over Transcendence yet this weekend.
__________________________________________________________________

The One
	X-Men: Days of Future Past
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
May 22	11:35 AM	21	163	12.88%
	2:10 PM	9	163	5.52%
	4:40 PM	9	163	5.52%
	7:10 PM	25	163	15.34%
	9:40 PM	37	163	22.70%
	12:10 AM	4	163	2.45%
Total		105	978	10.74%
May 23	11:35 AM	7	163	4.29%
	2:10 PM	4	163	2.45%
	4:40 PM	6	163	3.68%
	7:10 PM	33	163	20.25%
	9:40 PM	46	163	28.22%
	12:10 AM	4	163	2.45%
Total		100	978	10.22%

Pre-sales have picked up from yesterday.

Langham Place
	X-Men: Days of Future Past
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
May 22	7:30 PM	70	202	34.65%
	10:00 PM	25	202	12.38%
	12:30 AM	2	202	0.99%
Total		97	606	16.01%

At Langham Place, the 7:30 PM 3D showing is doing very well. The 10 PM showtime will start to fill up too by this weekend.

I see X-Men: Days of Future Past getting 3 screens next week. Maybe even 4 on the weekend if demand is high.

	Saturday				May 17
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	42,575	--	+87.7%
2	Neighbors	--	14,674	--	+50.6%
3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	12,204	--	+79.4%
4	Aberdeen	--	6,566	--	+54.3%
5	Transcendence	--	6,327	--	+58.1%
6	Delete My Love	--	2,687	--	+80.1%
7	The Eternal Zero	--	1,744	--	+51.5%
8	The Other Woman	--	900	--	+54.6%
9	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	662	--	+41.5%
10	The Past	--	559	--	--

Very good for Godzilla. Nice for Neighbors. Good increase for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It passed Neighbors for #2 today in gross. Aberdeen and Transcendence continue its fierce battle for #4. There is not much separation between the two. Delete My Love is pushing back hard. On Thursday, it was more than 3x behind Aberdeen's admissions but on Saturday, it was less than 2.5x back. Not good for The Eternal Zero or The Other Woman. After its solid opening day, Black Coal, Thin Ice has come back down from its high.

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			May 18
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	18,386	--	+8.8%
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	4,681	--	+8.9%
3	Neighbors	--	3,146	--	-4.6%
4	Aberdeen	--	2,556	--	+18.3%
5	Transcendence	--	1,904	--	+6.9%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	827	--	+14.1%
7	Delete My Love	--	750	--	+39.1%
8	Black Butler	--	234	--	+34.5%
9	The Other Woman	--	226	--	-26.9%
10	Rio 2	--	212	--	--

Great increases for the top 2. Bad decrease for Neighbors. Outstanding Sunday increase for Aberdeen. Good for Transcendence.

	Weekend Projections			May 15
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Godzilla	$1,680,000	--	$1,680,000
2	Neighbors	$400,000	--	$400,000
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$400,000	-67.4%	$6,790,000
4	Aberdeen	$160,000	-59.0%	$910,000
5	Transcendence	$159,000	-57.0%	$652,500

Nice opening weekend for Godzilla. Rave reviews and accelerated ticket sales ahead of X-Men's release next week contributed to the powerful opening weekend. Legs will very much be an issue. As much as the reviews help, there is no way it will stop X-Men from taking at least 3 screens. Neighbors had a great opening weekend. Seth Rogen and Zac Efron are certainly not box office draws (Rogen has had his last 2 feature films skipped by HK theaters entirely and Efron's last film to gross over $150k on OW was 17 Again 5 years ago) but credit the marketing for its success. It played as an alternative to the loud, crashing action of Godzilla and filled a genre that has not been in play for quite some time. 2nd place this weekend will come down to Sunday and how badly Neighbors declines and how light The Amazing Spider-Man 2 falls. Meanwhile, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 really got rocked by Godzilla. This will be two straight weeks of falls over 65%...and next week, it looks like it will decline over 75%. Distrastous legs for the web crawler. Aberdeen and Transcendence have been locked in a battle for 4th all week. Aberdeen will be Pang Ho Cheung's lowest grossing film in 4 years but it will be his 4th straight 1m grossing film (5th if you consider SDU to be his work as well). Transcendence has been flopping in a lot of places around the world but in HK, its gross has been decent. Aberdeen has the upper hand for #4. Sunday should see Transcendence suffer a heavier drop than Aberdeen which would put Aberdeen over the top.

	Saturday				May 17
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	42,575	--	+87.7%
2	Neighbors	--	14,674	--	+50.6%
3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	12,204	--	+79.4%
4	Aberdeen	--	6,566	--	+54.3%
5	Transcendence	--	6,327	--	+58.1%
6	Delete My Love	--	2,687	--	+80.1%
7	The Eternal Zero	--	1,744	--	+51.5%
8	The Other Woman	--	900	--	+54.6%
9	Black Coal, Thin Ice	--	662	--	+41.5%
10	The Past	--	559	--	--

Very good for Godzilla. Nice for Neighbors. Good increase for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It passed Neighbors for #2 today in gross. Aberdeen and Transcendence continue its fierce battle for #4. There is not much separation between the two. Delete My Love is pushing back hard. On Thursday, it was more than 3x behind Aberdeen's admissions but on Saturday, it was less than 2.5x back. Not good for The Eternal Zero or The Other Woman. After its solid opening day, Black Coal, Thin Ice has come back down from its high.

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			May 18
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Godzilla	--	18,386	--	+8.8%
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	4,681	--	+8.9%
3	Neighbors	--	3,146	--	-4.6%
4	Aberdeen	--	2,556	--	+18.3%
5	Transcendence	--	1,904	--	+6.9%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	827	--	+14.1%
7	Delete My Love	--	750	--	+39.1%
8	Black Butler	--	234	--	+34.5%
9	The Other Woman	--	226	--	-26.9%
10	Rio 2	--	212	--	--

Great increases for the top 2. Bad decrease for Neighbors. Outstanding Sunday increase for Aberdeen. Good for Transcendence.

	Weekend Projections			May 15
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Godzilla	$1,680,000	--	$1,680,000
2	Neighbors	$400,000	--	$400,000
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$400,000	-67.4%	$6,790,000
4	Aberdeen	$160,000	-59.0%	$910,000
5	Transcendence	$159,000	-57.0%	$652,500

Nice opening weekend for Godzilla. Rave reviews and accelerated ticket sales ahead of X-Men's release next week contributed to the powerful opening weekend. Legs will very much be an issue. As much as the reviews help, there is no way it will stop X-Men from taking at least 3 screens. Neighbors had a great opening weekend. Seth Rogen and Zac Efron are certainly not box office draws (Rogen has had his last 2 feature films skipped by HK theaters entirely and Efron's last film to gross over $150k on OW was 17 Again 5 years ago) but credit the marketing for its success. It played as an alternative to the loud, crashing action of Godzilla and filled a genre that has not been in play for quite some time. 2nd place this weekend will come down to Sunday and how badly Neighbors declines and how light The Amazing Spider-Man 2 falls. Meanwhile, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 really got rocked by Godzilla. This will be two straight weeks of falls over 65%...and next week, it looks like it will decline over 75%. Distrastous legs for the web crawler. Aberdeen and Transcendence have been locked in a battle for 4th all week. Aberdeen will be Pang Ho Cheung's lowest grossing film in 4 years but it will be his 4th straight 1m grossing film (5th if you consider SDU to be his work as well). Transcendence has been flopping in a lot of places around the world but in HK, its gross has been decent. Aberdeen has the upper hand for #4. Sunday should see Transcendence suffer a heavier drop than Aberdeen which would put Aberdeen over the top.

May 15 Weekend Actuals

1. Godzilla - $1,509,306
2. Neighbors - $387,001
3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $6,708,030
4. Aberdeen - $903,004
5. Transcendence - $645,002
The Other Woman - $1,012,654
Heaven Is For Real - $309,601
Kano - $593,402

Still a good start for Godzilla. Nice for Neighbors. A bit low for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This has no chance of passing 7m now. Aberdeen wins #4 over Transcendence by just $1,500. Great totals for the rest.

Thursday schedules

Palace APM
New	Holdovers	Leaving
X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D - 7 showings	Godzilla 3D - 6 showings (=)	The Other Woman
X-Men: Days of Future Past - 6 showings	Godzilla - 1 showing (▼ 6)
	Neighbors - 5 showings (▼ 7)
	The Eternal Zero - 3 showings (▲ 2)
	Aberdeen - 2 showings (=)
	Delete My Love - 3 showings (=)
	Transcendence - 1 showing (▼ 5)
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 5 showings (=)
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 3D - 1 showing (▼ 2)

Telford
New	Holdovers	Leaving
X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D - 11 showings	Godzilla - 6 showings (=)	Godzilla 3D
X-Men: Days of Future Past - 7 showings	Neighbors - 3 showings (▼ 5)	Aberdeen
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 3 showings (▼ 5)	Delete My Love
	The Eternal Zero - 2 showings (▼ 3)	The Other Woman
	Transcendence - 1 showing (▼ 2)
	Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission - 1 showing (=)
	Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 1 showing (=)
	Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan - 1 showing (=)

Interesting schedules are coming out this week. Some theaters have opted for 2 screens for X-Men. They have given Godzilla, Neighbors, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 1 screen and the last screen is shared for the remaining holdovers. Meanwhile, at Telford, X-Men has reined in 4 screens at night. Godzilla loses all of its 3D showtimes but the rest keep half or more of their showtimes from Wednesday.

There are other theaters that are giving X-Men 3 screens too. Clearly, theaters are all over the place as to how many screens they want for X-Men and how many they leave for the holdovers. More schedules and pre-sales update to come tomorrow.

iSQUARE
New	Holdovers	Leaving
X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D - 8 showings	Godzilla - 1 showing (▼ 2)	Godzilla 3D
X-Men: Days of Future Past - 4 showings	Godzilla IMAX - 5 showings (=)	The Other Woman
	Neighbors - 3 showings (▼ 6)
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 1 showing (=)
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 3D - 1 showing (▼ 2)
	Transcendence - 2 showings (=)
	Aberdeen - 2 showings (▼ 4)

Langham Place
New	Holdovers	Leaving
X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D - 15 showings	Godzilla 3D - 6 showings (▼ 12)	Black Butler
X-Men: Days of Future Past - 4 showings	Godzilla - 1 showing (▼ 4)	Delete My Love
	Neighbors - 5 showings (▼ 7)
	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 3D - 4 showings (▼ 5)
	Transcendence - 1 showing (▼ 3)
	Aberdeen - 3 showings (▼ 6)

X-Men is doing a bit better at UA theaters. X-Men has occupied 4 theaters at Langham Place during the night and iSQUARE is putting X-Men on 3 screens at night. Godzilla is gone at iSQUARE in regular theaters but it is still showing in the iSQUARE IMAX.

Langham Place
	X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D					X-Men: Days of Future Past 2D
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
May 22	11:30 AM	7	202	3.47%	May 22	11:10 AM	10	191	5.24%
	2:00 PM	0	202	0.00%		1:20 PM	4	180	2.22%
	12:30 AM	2	202	0.99%		4:00 PM	16	191	8.38%
	3:00 PM	2	187	1.07%		12:40 AM	6	191	3.14%
	4:30 PM	7	202	3.47%
	5:30 PM	17	176	9.66%
	6:10 PM	6	180	3.33%
	7:00 PM	35	202	17.33%
	7:30 PM	119	202	58.91%
	8:00 PM	40	187	21.39%
	8:40 PM	38	180	21.11%
	9:30 PM	26	202	12.87%
	10:00 PM	96	202	47.52%
	11:10 PM	27	180	15.00%
	12:00 AM	4	202	1.98%
	12:30 AM	8	202	3.96%
Total		434	3110	13.95%	Total		36	753	4.78%

It is doing slightly below Captain America 2's pre-sales but it is looking at a opening weekend above 2m.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		May 22
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	17,231	--
2	Godzilla	7,097	2,647	-62.7%
3	Neighbors	1,208	704	-41.7%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	1,500	557	-62.9%
5	Aberdeen	881	301	-65.8%
6	The Little House	--	289	--
7	The Eternal Zero	392	233	-40.6%
8	Devil's Knot	--	164	--
9	Transcendence	649	118	-81.8%
10	The Broken Circle Breakdown	--	105	--

X-Men: Days of Future Past OD pre-sales: +67.3% X-Men: First Class's OD pre-sales
X-Men: DoFP vs. Captain America 2 OD: +24.9%

Excellent start for X-Men. Pre-sales took a huge jump on Wednesday. It is running a quarter better than Captain America 2 currently in admissions. Pricing wise though, it is not getting a blockbuster surcharge unlike Captain America 2 or The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but with strong pre-sales like these, it should be able to overcome the surcharge factor here.

3 years ago, X-Men: First Class had very strong walk-ins on opening day (more than 2/3 of admissions were walk-ins). For Days of Future Past, it won't match a 3 multiplier like First Class did but it will break 40,000 admissions today. Looking at pre-sales, X-Men seems to be doing great at almost every location. It has even stolen a Friday night IMAX showtime of Godzilla at iSQUARE. Even its 3D showtimes seem quite strong by comparison to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Captain America 2.

Langham Place
	X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D					X-Men: Days of Future Past 2D
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled	Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
May 22	11:30 AM	25	202	12.38%	May 22	11:10 AM	42	191	21.99%
	2:00 PM	27	202	13.37%		1:20 PM	13	180	7.22%
	3:00 PM	27	187	14.44%		4:00 PM	59	191	30.89%
	4:30 PM	20	202	9.90%		12:40 AM	36	191	18.85%
	5:30 PM	40	176	22.73%
	6:10 PM	23	180	12.78%
	7:00 PM	80	202	39.60%
	7:30 PM	130	202	64.36%
	8:00 PM	103	187	55.08%
	8:40 PM	97	180	53.89%
	9:30 PM	92	202	45.54%
	10:00 PM	103	202	50.99%
	11:10 PM	76	180	42.22%
	12:00 AM	56	202	27.72%
	12:30 AM	21	202	10.40%
Total		920	2908	31.64%	Total		150	753	19.92%

If we look at the pre-sales at Langham Place, X-Men really blew up on Wednesday, doubling its 3D admissions and quadrupling its 2D admissions.

Rave reviews should keep this afloat at least until Transformers 4 comes out.

2nd week holdover Godzilla did OK considering the competition but the drops for this and all films will be larger with final admissions. Neighbors had a muted start on Thursday last week. Better than expected drop for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Nothing to do with the box office, here's a compilation of snapshots of each of the 83 subway/train stations by two former visiting residents from Ireland (Mark & Aisling).



http://amasianadventure.blogspot.ie/2014/05/mark-aislings-mtr-challenge.html

It's 6AM Thursday in Hong Kong. So far, X-Men: Day of Future Past has sold 18,058 tickets for the day. That's significantly more than both Captain America 2 (13,794) and Godzilla (7,097) at the same point. But we know the X-Men series is always going to be frontloaded. It fell far short of TASM2 (54,986), which opened on a holiday. How does this compare to The Wolverine, Bluebomb?

X-Men: Day of Future Past - 18,058
Captain America 2 - 13,794
Godzilla - 7,097
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 54,986
The Wolverine - ?

It's well ahead of The Wolverine (7,373).

	Thursday			May 22
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	38,997	--
2	Godzilla	19,248	7,000	-63.6%
3	Neighbors	6,970	3,367	-51.7%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	5,084	1,810	-64.4%
5	Aberdeen	3,223	1,129	-65.0%
6	The Little House	--	702	--
7	Delete My Love	919	666	-27.5%
8	The Eternal Zero	1,082	640	-40.9%
9	Transcendence	2,690	513	-80.9%
10	Devil's Knot	--	462	--

X-Men: Days of Future Past OD estimate: $485,000

	Opening Weekend Admissions
	Thor	X-Men: First Class	Green Lantern	Captain America	Thor 2	Captain America 2	X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D
Thursday	20,466	32,105	15,032	25,949	30,100	30,942	38,997
Friday	22,338	33,129	16,560	24,473	32,000	37,871
Saturday	37,071	64,048	27,952	37,240	55,989	72,031
Sunday	39,375	63,745	25,488	33,602	55,100	63,688
Total	119,250	193,027	85,032	121,264	173,189	204,532	38,997

As you can see, Days of Future Past came out well ahead. It's interesting to look back at First Class. It had a strong opening day, good Friday and an excellent weekend. Days of Future Past will follow a similar pattern although Friday should see a bigger boost and Saturday should be slightly weaker. It won't have that outstanding hold that First Class saw on Sunday but it should see a very good drop. Reviews are looking great as its rating has gone up from the morning. It is very close to Captain America 2's rating and when you consider that opening day audiences are more fickle than weekend audiences, this will play very well for the next few weeks.


That is not true. X-Men: First Class had fantastic legs and nearly notched a 3 multiplier.

As for the others, Godzilla dropped 64% on its 2nd Thursday. Its drop is not bad right now but it will see enormous drops on Saturday/Sunday due to increased demand for X-Men. 3m will not be happening. Neighbors did not suffer as much as Godzilla. It's the only Hollywood comedy out right now so its drops should be better than most films this week. Like Godzilla, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will feel the true effects of X-Men's power this weekend. Big drop for Aberdeen. It will soon be displaced by Delete My Love. The Little House did OK numbers. Exceptional hold for Delete My Love. Good for The Eternal Zero. Massive fall for Transcendence. Terrible start for Devil's Knot.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			May 23
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	21,208	--	+23.1%
2	Godzilla	8,849	3,748	-57.6%	+41.6%
3	Neighbors	2,313	1,250	-46.0%	+77.6%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	2,197	839	-61.8%	+50.6%
5	Aberdeen	1,398	451	-67.7%	+49.8%
6	The Eternal Zero	432	391	-9.5%	+67.8%
7	Transcendence	1,235	352	-71.5%	+198.3%
8	The Little House	--	301	--	+4.2%
9	Devil's Knot	--	271	--	+65.2%
10	Delete My Love	253	124	-51.0%	--

Great for X-Men. Not good for Godzilla. Average for Neighbors. Poor for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Aberdeen. Extraordinary hold for The Eternal Zero. Weak increase for The Little House. Dull for Devil's Knot. Good for Delete My Love.
_____________________________________________
Edge of Tomorrow tickets are on sale in IMAX. So far, it is behind the mega blockbusters but it will fill up to about 75-80% at show time.

Overheard 3 has starting pre-selling. Pre-sales are looking very good at the moment.

Thursday Actuals

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past - $512,020
2. Godzilla - $74,159 (-71.3%)/$2,057,111
3. Neighbors - $27,729 (-57.0%)
4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $19,345 (-66.7%)/$6,872,946
The Eternal Zero - $103,178
Aberdeen - $967,294
Delete My Love - $386,917

X-Men: Days of Future Past takes the biggest non-holiday opening day this year over Captain America 2. Excellent. Godzilla tumbled hard. Neighbors did slightly better than the rest but its hold is not that great. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 dove. Good for The Eternal Zero. Aberdeen will break through 1m this weekend. Delete My Love has achieved a pretty good gross.

X-Men Days of Future Past OD Comparison

Captain America 2 - +13.5%
Thor 2 - +32.3%
Captain America - +110.7%
X-Men: First Class - +151.3%

That is a stunning increase from First Class. Marvelous opening day for Days of Future Past.

	Friday				May 23
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	44,717	--	+14.7%
2	Godzilla	22,686	9,335	-58.9%	+33.4%
3	Neighbors	9,745	4,496	-53.9%	+33.5%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	6,804	2,405	-64.7%	+32.9%
5	Aberdeen	4,255	1,372	-67.8%	+21.5%
6	Transcendence	4,003	999	-75.0%	+94.7%
7	The Little House	--	861	--	+22.6%
8	The Eternal Zero	1,151	735	-36.1%	+14.8%
9	Devil's Knot	--	659	--	+42.6%
10	Delete My Love	1,492	608	-59.2%	-8.7%

Fantastic for X-Men. It increased nearly 6,000 admissions on Friday, which is not far behind from Captain America 2's 7,000 holiday-fueled admissions increase on Friday. The holdovers all saw varying degrees of weak holds. Godzilla might have had a reprieve on Friday but Saturday and Sunday's holds will be bone-crushing.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			May 24
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	40,921	--	+93.0%
2	Godzilla	16,893	6,062	-64.1%	+61.7%
3	Neighbors	3,299	1,618	-51.0%	+29.4%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	4,300	1,184	-72.5%	+41.1%
5	Aberdeen	2,160	738	-65.8%	+63.6%
6	The Little House	--	542	--	+80.1%
7	Transcendence	1,781	535	-70.0%	+52.0%
8	The Eternal Zero	725	513	-29.2%	+31.2%
9	Devil's Knot	--	267	--	-1.5%
10	Delete My Love	539	194	-64.0%	+56.5%

Total domination for X-Men. X-Men actually beat Captain America 2's holiday Saturday pre-sales which is crazy to even think about considering it is not showing in IMAX. The rest of the holdovers saw bigger decreases due to more screens heading over to X-Men.

X-Men: Days of Future Past OW Projection: $2,978,000

3m OW is within reach. It really depends on how high it flies today and tomorrow.

Saturday update:

X-Men: Days of Future Past is currently scorching the box office with nearly 79,000 admissions. It has a chance of breaking 80,000 admissions depending on how well its 10 PM and 11 PM showtimes do. It is almost 7,000 admissions up on Captain America 2's opening holiday Saturday with 2 more hours to go.

	Saturday				May 24
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	78,613	--	+75.8%
2	Godzilla	42,575	15,289	-64.1%	+63.8%
3	Neighbors	14,674	6,476	-55.9%	+44.0%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	12,204	3,114	-74.5%	+29.5%
5	Aberdeen	6,566	1,784	-72.8%	+30.0%
6	The Little House	--	1,263	--	+46.7%
7	The Eternal Zero	1,744	1,224	-29.8%	+66.5%
8	Delete My Love	2,687	1,240	-53.9%	+103.9%
9	Transcendence	6,327	1,162	-81.6%	+16.3%
10	Devil's Knot	--	671	--	+1.8%

Monstrous number for X-Men: Days of Future Past. It lost admissions in the last 2 hours but that is still one heck of a Saturday. Biggest Saturday admissions this year. As expected, Godzilla, Neighbors, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Aberdeen all saw higher admissions decreases on Saturday. Very good for The Little House. Outstanding hold for The Eternal Zero. Delete My Love has had an up/down weekend so far. Its Saturday increase is quite nice but its week-to-week hold is not great. Terrible for Transcendence. Weak for Devil's Knot.

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			May 25
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	40,640	--	-0.7%
2	Godzilla	18,386	5,989	-67.4%	-1.2%
3	Neighbors	3,146	1,467	-53.4%	-9.3%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	4,681	1,434	-69.4%	+21.1%
5	Aberdeen	2,556	772	-69.8%	+4.6%
6	The Eternal Zero	827	662	-20.0%	+29.0%
7	The Little House	--	594	--	+9.6%
8	Transcendence	1,904	437	-77.0%	-18.3%
9	Delete My Love	750	391	-47.9%	+101.5%
10	Coming Home	--	301	--	--

Great for X-Men. It could be aiming for 75-76k today.

	Weekend Projections			May 22
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	$3,000,000	--	$3,000,000
2	Godzilla	$460,000	-69.4%	$2,443,000
3	Neighbors	$160,000	-59.5%	$690,000
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$108,000	-65.2%	$6,960,000
5	Aberdeen	$45,000	-73.4%	$1,003,000

Incredible OW for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Judging from early reactions and trends, this should pass both Captain America 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and make at least 8m. Dreadful for Godzilla but 3m can still happen if it does not majorly collapse next week. So-so for Neighbors this weekend but overall, it is a great total so far for both Seth Rogen and Zac Efron in Hong Kong. Another weekend drop over 60% for TASM 2. This is following Clash of the Titans' trajectory albeit with slightly better holds. This will barely cross 7m and will finish with just over a 2 multiplier. One of the more disappointing recent entries for Pang Ho Cheung but it does pass 1m this weekend.

	Sunday				May 25
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	72,186	--	-8.2%
2	Godzilla	--	13,567	--	-11.3%
3	Neighbors	--	5,618	--	-13.2%
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	2,964	--	-4.8%
5	Aberdeen	--	1,951	--	+9.4%
6	The Eternal Zero	--	1,225	--	+0.1%
7	Delete My Love	--	1,225	--	-1.2%
8	The Little House	--	1,191	--	-5.7%
9	Transcendence	--	1,091	--	-6.1%
10	Devil's Knot	--	631	--	-6.0%

Decent hold on Sunday for X-Men. While I thought it would hold up better on Sunday, I didn't except X-Men to break out as much on Saturday. All in all, it was a great Saturday and Sunday for the comic book team. Steep drops for Godzilla and Neighbors. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had an OK Sunday.

	Weekend adm.			May 22-25
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	--	234,513	--
2	Godzilla	--	45,191	--
3	Neighbors	--	19,957	--
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	--	10,293	--
5	Aberdeen	--	6,236	--
6	The Little House	--	4,017	--
7	The Eternal Zero	--	3,824	--
8	Transcendence	--	3,765	--
9	Delete My Love	--	3,739	--
10	Devil's Knot	--	2,423	--

	Opening Weekend Admissions
	Thor	X-Men: First Class	Green Lantern	Captain America	Thor 2	Captain America 2	X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D
Thursday	20,466	32,105	15,032	25,949	30,100	30,942	38,997
Friday	22,338	33,129	16,560	24,473	32,000	37,871	44,717
Saturday	37,071	64,048	27,952	37,240	55,989	72,031	78,613
Sunday	39,375	63,745	25,488	33,602	55,100	63,688	72,186
Total	119,250	193,027	85,032	121,264	173,189	204,532	234,513

X-Men takes it by 30,000 over Captain America 2 without any help from a holiday.

	Weekend Estimates			May 22
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	X-Men: Days of Future Past	$3,000,000	--	$3,000,000
2	Godzilla	$460,000	-69.4%	$2,443,000
3	Neighbors	$160,000	-59.5%	$690,000
4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$108,000	-65.2%	$6,960,000
5	Aberdeen	$50,000	-70.4%	$1,008,000

X-Men: Days of Future Past takes the 2nd biggest OW behind The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Some theater owners definitely underestimated the power of this comic book series. I saw a lot of theaters trying to squeeze in and add more shows to X-Men on Friday and Saturday. Going back to 2011, X-Men: First Class held well in its first few weeks before Transformers 3 killed its run. I see something similar happening again although legs won't be as great as a lot of demand has been met this weekend.

Captain America 2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past's excellent OW could not have been achieved more differently though. While Captain America 2 took advantage of the empty marketplace and the holiday, X-Men: Days of Future Past had to rely on its own branding and goodwill from First Class and rave early reviews for this film to propel it to a powerful opening weekend. It also had to contend with coming off of a 3m weekend the previous week while Captain America 2 had 2 weekends of 2m before it to bolster its opening weekend.

Reviews are starting to pour in for X-Men: Days of Future Past and they are excellent. It has already matched Captain America 2's rating in just 4 days. Although a sci-fi Tom Cruise film and a classic fairy tale open next week, they won't be heavy hitters and X-Men will be riding the wave of popularity into the Monday holiday. I see it falling just 40% next weekend to about 1.8-1.9m. X-Men: Days of Future Past will be crossing 6m in just 15 days.

Godzilla was trampled by X-Men. While it had a pretty good opening weekend, it never was going to be a mainstay at the box office. It was sandwiched between 2 of the biggest films of the year and it paid the price on its 2nd weekend. 3m is in jeopardy unless if it pulls out a good hold next weekend.

Neighbors did not have a good 2nd weekend but it at least held better than the rest of the top 5. 1m is not happening since it has been falling quite rapidly and reviews are mixed.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2's 4th weekend did not bring any joy to Sony. One of the worst legs I've seen in a mega blockbuster in ages. While it will crawl past 7m, it is a huge disappointment. This was expected to contend for 10m and it looked like it had a chance of doing so after its opening day but every day after that has been a major disaster. The fact that it will not beat Captain America 2's gross is surprising and humilating after the first Amazing Spider-Man film had over a 3 multiplier over Captain America's gross.

Aberdeen is also another underperformer. This broke through 1m on Sunday but it picked a bad release date and the film was not received well enough to cut through and be a secondary performer at the box office.

Beyond the top 5, The Little House had a very good opening weekend. It was showcased in only 4 theaters but it held up nicely throughout the weekend and brought home with at least a $7,500 PTA.

Extremely good hold for The Eternal Zero. WOM is very strong for this Japanese flick.

I was talking about its presales as a percentage of its Thursday gross. The percentage was nearly the same for DoFP and CA2 (~44%), so indicating DoFP will have similar legs (weekend multiplier) as CA2 had.

This coming Thursday is going to be a bloodbath, with Edge of Tomorrow, Maleficent, A Million Ways to Die in the West all coming out. DoFP's legs are gonna be cut short.

When has a superhero film not been frontloaded though? By your measure, pretty much every superhero film apart from The Dark Knight series fits the list.

A Million Ways to Die in the West is pushed back to June 5. I don't think the other 2 will affect X-Men that much.

You may be right.