Wednesday adm.	(so far)			February 18
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Triumph in the Skies	--	12,363	--	--
2	From Vegas to Macau II	--	10,542	--	--
3	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	9,768	--	--
4	12 Golden Ducks	--	8,242	--	--
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	--	7,519	--	--
6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	4,446	--	--
7	Fifty Shades of Grey	--	2,004	--	--
8	An Inspector Calls	--	1,176	--	--
9	Jupiter Ascending	--	468	--	--
10	Shaun the Sheep	--	190	--	--

Good Chinese New Year Eve for Triumph in the Skies and From Vegas to Macau 2. Doraemon is still doing alright for now. 12 Golden Ducks should be doing a lot better. OK for Kingsman. Penguins of Madagascar is fighting back. Extremely poor for Fifty Shades of Grey. It will leave theaters today or get downsized big time. Decent for An Inspector Calls. Very weak for Jupiter Ascending. It will have just 1 showing for the entire day tomorrow. Not that good for Shaun the Sheep.


Top 7 Weekend Showtimes Theater Chains Comparison

Broadway/AMC

Promoted

From Vegas to Macau II
Penguins of Madagascar

Same

12 Golden Ducks

Demoted

Triumph in the Skies
Stand By Me Doraemon
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Fifty Shades of Grey

UA

Promoted

Triumph in the Skies
Stand By Me Doraemon

Demoted

12 Golden Ducks
Penguins of Madagascar
From Vegas to Macau II
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Fifty Shades of Grey

MCL

Promoted

From Vegas to Macau II
Triumph in the Skies

Same

Penguins of Madagascar
Stand By Me Doraemon

Demoted

12 Golden Ducks
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Fifty Shades of Grey

Golden Harvest

Promoted

From Vegas to Macau II
Penguins of Madagascar
Triumph in the Skies

Same

12 Golden Ducks
Stand By Me Doraemon

Demoted

Kingsman: The Secret Service
Fifty Shades of Grey

It is really difficult to judge how well a film is doing with so many openers coming out so I've decided to forgo the usual Thursday schedules and instead look at the general trend of how each film is doing at the 4 major theater chains.

At the biggest theater chain Broadway/AMC, Triumph in the Skies is getting downsized despite hot pre-selling. On the flip side, From Vegas to Macau II and Penguins of Madagascar are getting upgraded into bigger screens or more showtimes. 12 Golden Ducks will stay the same but gets full day showtimes due to the film being distributed by EDKO which is owned by Broadway/AMC. Doraemon/Kingsman/Fifty Shades all get downgraded. For some locations, Fifty Shades will leave theaters today.

UA is pretty much the opposite of Broadway/AMC. Triumph in the Skies and Doraemon will be promoted while 12 Golden Ducks/From Vegas to Macau II/Penguins of Madagascar all lose showtimes/bigger screens. Kingsman/Fifty Shades will also be demoted here. Interestingly, Kingsman will lose showtimes in IMAX to Triumph in the Skies. This is a huge coup for TITS because normally the 4 IMAX screens are not given to a standard non-IMAX release unless if there is no IMAX-made release out or if the IMAX release is doing poorly. Kingsman was doing alright in IMAX last weekend but the hot pre-selling for TITS made the theater operators change their mind.

MCL sees Triumph in the Skies along with From Vegas to Macau II upgraded while the two animated films stay the same. 12 Golden Ducks as well as the two usual suspects Kingsman and Fifty Shades will get cut in some shape or form.

At Golden Harvest, From Vegas to Macau II is being distributed by Panasia which is owned by the Golden Harvest theater chain. It will see more showtimes this weekend. Also in GH's good graces is Penguins of Madagascar and Triumph in the Skies. The other 2 big openers will stay the same while the two holdovers from last week will see its showtimes slashed.

Lots of scheduling politics this weekend. Where else can you see a hot pre-seller like Triumph in the Skies see its showtimes cut at Broadway/AMC while Broadway/AMC's own 12 Golden Ducks gets only half day showtimes at Golden Harvest?

	Wednesday adm.	(so far)			February 18
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Triumph in the Skies	--	12,363	--	--
2	From Vegas to Macau II	--	10,542	--	--
3	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	9,768	--	--
4	12 Golden Ducks	--	8,242	--	--
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	--	7,519	--	--
6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	4,446	--	--
7	Fifty Shades of Grey	--	2,004	--	--
8	An Inspector Calls	--	1,176	--	--
9	Jupiter Ascending	--	468	--	--
10	Shaun the Sheep	--	190	--	--

	Wednesday adm.				February 18
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Kingsman: The Secret Service	--	19,841	--	--
2	Triumph in the Skies	--	19,384	--	--
3	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	18,871	--	--
4	From Vegas to Macau II	--	15,956	--	--
5	12 Golden Ducks	--	14,124	--	--
6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	8,594	--	--
7	Fifty Shades of Grey	--	6,600	--	--
8	An Inspector Calls	--	1,642	--	--
9	Jupiter Ascending	--	790	--	--
10	Wild	--	724	--	--

Triumph in the Skies was leading up until 10:00 PM when it lost 700 admissions all of a sudden but both Kingsman and TITS did well. Good for Doraemon. Excellent for From Vegas to Macau II. Disappointing for 12 Golden Ducks. Marvelous for Penguins of Madagascar. It is picking up steam. Awful for Fifty Shades of Grey.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		February 19
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Triumph in the Skies	--	31,676	--
2	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	29,631	--
3	From Vegas to Macau II	--	28,318	--
4	12 Golden Ducks	--	25,581	--
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	2,760	13,836	+401.3%
6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	13,421	--
7	An Inspector Calls	--	4,409	--
8	Shaun the Sheep	--	3,007	--
9	The Imitation Game	--	1,870	--
10	Fifty Shades of Grey	5,330	1,714	-67.8%

Great start for Triumph in the Skies. Very good for Doraemon. Excellent for From Vegas to Macau II. Theaters definitely thought this was going to be the 4th or 5th biggest movie of the weekend but it is proving everyone wrong. Extremely disappointing for 12 Golden Ducks given that its predecessor beat the first Vegas to Macau movie last year. Pretty good for Kingsman. Pre-sales aren't that great but it will pick up in walk-ins. Magnificent for Penguins of Madagascar. It is certainly not going down without a fight. Decent for An Inspector Calls. Good for The Imitation Game. Terrible for Fifty Shades of Grey. Theaters will start leaving this off their schedules beginning tomorrow.

Wednesday (CNY Eve) numbers

1. Triumph in the Skies - $217,833/$643,188
2. Stand By Me Doraemon - $216,544/$1,086,588
3. Kingsman: The Secret Service - $207,521/$1,425,583
4. From Vegas to Macau 2 - $188,187/$399,575
5. 12 Golden Ducks - $171,430/$489,802
6. Penguins of Madagascar - $87,648/$386,686
7. Fifty Shades of Grey - $65,736/$853,287
8. An Inspector Calls - $21,912/$36,090
9. Jupiter Ascending - $7,733/$920,313
10. Wild - $6,444/$175,297

Very good for the top 4. Doraemon even clinches the #1 spot in the franchise in HK with only sneak previews. Good number. Disappointing for 12 Golden Ducks. Penguins of Madagascar is doing better. Terrible for Fifty Shades of Grey. An Inspector Calls did not do great. Bad for Jupiter Ascending. Friday will be its last day in theaters. It will leave with less than $925,000. Alright for Wild.

	Thursday			February 19
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Triumph in the Skies	--	42,480	--
2	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	39,493	--
3	12 Golden Ducks	--	38,389	--
4	From Vegas to Macau II	--	34,901	--
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	14,136	26,081	+84.5%
6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	19,118	--
7	Fifty Shades of Grey	11,872	5,974	-49.7%
8	An Inspector Calls	--	5,787	--
9	Shaun the Sheep	--	4,832	--
10	The Imitation Game	--	4,073	--

Huge win for Triumph in the Skies. Doraemon was close but the lack of showings at night killed its chances of winning. Decent recovery for 12 Golden Ducks. It had the highest walk-ins but was it on its merit or because of other films selling out? From Vegas to Macau 2 had really weak walk-ins because most of its showings on Thursday were sold out or near sellouts. Very good for Kingsman. Despite its continued problems with pre-selling, it claimed 2nd in walk-ins today. That is an excellent comeback for Penguins of Madagascar. Word of mouth is very strong. Could it take away business from Doraemon this weekend? Fifty Shades had a horrible drop. Whenever you drop on CNY, that is bad. To drop 50% on CNY is horrifying. An Inspector Calls did pretty bad. Weak for Shaun the Sheep. Very good for The Imitation Game.

For those interested, Jupiter Ascending fell a whopping 98% today in admissions.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			February 20
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	32,689	--	+10.3%
2	From Vegas to Macau 2	432	29,344	+6692.6%	+3.6%
3	Triumph in the Skies	--	29,206	--	-7.8%
4	12 Golden Ducks	965	23,883	+2374.9%	-6.6%
5	Penguins of Madagascar	--	15,385	--	+14.6%
6	Kingsman: The Secret Service	4,813	14,624	+203.8%	+5.7%
7	An Inspector Calls	--	3,975	--	-9.8%
8	Shaun the Sheep	--	3,568	--	+18.7%
9	The Imitation Game	--	2,416	--	+29.2%
10	Fifty Shades of Grey	6,210	1,937	-68.8%	+13.0%

The Chinese language films were the only films to decrease from Thursday's pre-sales except for From Vegas to Macau 2 which saw increased showtimes on Friday. In contrast, animated films all saw nice gains on Friday with all of them increasing at least 10%. That's a very good increase for Kingsman. It saw decreased showtimes today but still managed to increase. Awful for Fifty Shades. -69% on a holiday is a major disaster.

		Thursday Actuals						February 19
LW	TW	Movie	Last Thu. (USD)	Thursday (USD)	% chg	Screens	Days	Total
--	1	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	$429,221	--	--	1	$1,515,810
--	2	Triumph in the Skies	--	$394,420	--	--	1	$1,040,186
--	3	12 Golden Ducks	--	$346,728	--	--	1	$840,398
--	4	From Vegas to Macau II	--	$342,861	--	--	1	$747,593
1	5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	$152,146	$242,323	+59.3%	--	8	$1,669,196
--	6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	$216,544	--	--	1	$604,519
--	7	An Inspector Calls	--	$68,314	--	--	1	$105,694
2	8	Fifty Shades of Grey	$121,201	$55,425	-54.3%	--	8	$908,713
--	9	The Imitation Game	--	$38,668	--	--	--	$136,629
--	--	Shaun the Sheep	--	$33,512	--	--	1	$70,892

Note: Shaun the Sheep's Thursday gross is an estimate only.

In a very fierce CNY battle, Doraemon lost to Triumph in the Skies in admissions but won in gross. Altogether, it will double the 2nd highest Doraemon movie on Friday and will at least triple the 2nd highest before it leaves theaters. This is a fantastic result! Great start for Triumph in the Skies. This is playing very well with young people. Letdown for 12 Golden Ducks. It barely won Thursday over From Vegas to Macau 2. Including sneaks, this might pass its predcessor's opening weekend from last year. Good for From Vegas to Macau 2. This will definitely beat last year's offering. Good hold for Kingsman. It will pass 2m on Saturday and will at least pass 3m. 4m is possible if new openers in the coming weeks do poorly. Penguins of Madagascar rebounded from last week's small previews. This now has a shot at 2m. An Inspector Calls did pretty poorly. Fifty Shades of Grey combusted. In just 1 week, it has gone from 2nd to 8th, fallen over 50% on a holiday and lost more than 10 theaters during a holiday weekend. This might be the worst hold I've ever witnessed on a 2nd week holiday weekend ever! Very good for The Imitation Game. Shaun the Sheep was hammered from the other animated releases. Bad total so far.

The top 9 combined for more than 2.1m US. We will hit a new weekend record this weekend with a chance at 8m provided Sunday holds up well. This weekend will hit at least 7.5m total.

Tits always win. AWWWWRIGHT.

AWWWWWWW YEA.

	Friday					February 20
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg	Gross
1	Triumph in the Skies	--	43,073	--	+1.4%	$384,108
2	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	42,861	--	+8.5%	$476,913
3	From Vegas to Macau 2	2,264	38,723	+1610.4%	+11.0%	$367,352
4	12 Golden Ducks	3,246	36,907	+1037.0%	-3.9%	$335,128
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	18,913	25,403	+34.3%	-2.6%	$232,011
6	Penguins of Madagascar	--	20,691	--	+8.2%	$232,011
7	Shaun the Sheep	--	5,975	--	+23.7%	$48,980
8	An Inspector Calls	--	5,733	--	-0.9%	$68,314
9	Fifty Shades of Grey	15,148	4,789	-68.4%	-19.8%	$38,668
10	The Imitation Game	--	4,118	--	+1.1%	$37,379

The general trend for this weekend is animated films go up while Chinese language films go down. The only exception to this rule on Friday was From Vegas to Macau II which increased due to the lack of showtimes on Thursday which meant theaters had to give it more showtimes/bigger screens on Friday to compensate for the high demand. Triumph in the Skies eked out an admissions victory and an admissions increase from Thursday but in gross it fell -2.6%. 12 Golden Ducks fared slightly worse than the other 2 big Chinese language films. Kingsman pulled off a solid hold despite it going down in admissions and in gross. It has been holding very strongly despite mild pre-sales. The tepid pre-sales is what sprung theaters to move it to smaller screens beginning on Friday, however, it has crawled back up with walk-ins. Fifty Shades of Grey gets a dishonorable mention for declining 30% in gross from Thursday. Its performance has truly been shocking for all the wrong reasons.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			February 21
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	23,846	36,119	+51.5%	+10.5%
2	From Vegas to Macau II	3,985	27,234	+583.4%	-7.2%
3	Triumph in the Skies	19,164	26,259	+37.0%	-10.1%
4	12 Golden Ducks	4,343	21,628	+398.0%	-9.4%
5	Penguins of Madagascar	5,309	17,131	+222.7%	+11.3%
6	Kingsman: The Secret Service	16,914	15,005	-11.3%	+2.6%
7	An Inspector Calls	--	4,012	--	+0.9%
8	Shaun the Sheep	--	3,702	--	+3.8%
9	Fifty Shades of Grey	15,638	2,715	-82.6%	+40.2%
10	The Imitation Game	1,948	2,693	+38.2%	+11.5%

	Saturday				February 21
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	35,149	44,949	+27.9%	+4.9%
2	Triumph in the Skies	26,272	41,830	+59.2%	-2.9%
3	From Vegas to Macau II	9,140	39,713	+334.5%	+2.6%
4	12 Golden Ducks	12,070	36,017	+198.4%	-2.4%
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	31,243	25,112	-19.6%	-1.1%
6	Penguins of Madagascar	7,286	22,401	+207.5%	+8.3%
7	Shaun the Sheep	--	6,411	--	+7.3%
8	An Inspector Calls	--	6,090	--	+6.2%
9	Fifty Shades of Grey	25,982	5,003	-80.7%	+4.5%
10	The Imitation Game	2,831	4,242	+49.8%	+3.0%

Doraemon is HUGE. It has had an incredible run so far! Very nice for Triumph in the Skies. Great for From Vegas to Macau 2. It is in contention with Triumph in the Skies for #2 this weekend. Not good for 12 Golden Ducks. Pretty good hold for Kingsman. Excellent for Penguins of Madagascar. Nice bumps for Shaun the Sheep and An Inspector Calls. Ghastly for Fifty Shades of Grey. Falling 81% on a holiday from Valentine's Day is a Razzie-worthy performance. Good for The Imitation Game.

	Weekend Projections			Feb 19
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	$1,885,000	--	$2,970,000
2	Triumph in the Skies	$1,475,000	--	$2,120,000
3	From Vegas to Macau II	$1,435,000	--	$1,840,000
4	12 Golden Ducks	$1,285,000	--	$1,780,000
5	Penguins of Madagascar	$940,000	--	$1,330,000

Magnificent for Doraemon. It will pass 3m either on Sunday or Monday and 4m will happen by next weekend! It will gross more than 5x last year's Doraemon offering. Truly an outstanding performance. Besides its astonishing performance, it will be the first time in 7 years that a kids movie has won the CNY weekend. The last time a kids movie won the CNY weekend was with CJ7 back in 2008. If you are only counting pure animation movies, the last pure animation release to win CNY was The Incredibles in 2005.

Pretty good for Triumph in the Skies. Its really strong Thursday is what pulled it up to #2 this week despite having to deal with last year's CNY movies getting sequels this year and a breakthrough performance for Doraemon. It constantly sold out on Thursday which pushed many theaters to give it more screens on the weekend which allowed it to stem the tide of From Vegas to Macau 2's push.

Many people including myself were not expecting From Vegas to Macau 2 to do as much damage as it did yet it rose every day up till Saturday in admissions and it might have possibly managed a 2nd place finish in gross on Saturday. A ton of theaters put this movie in the smallest screen but as it kept on selling out, theaters had to give up the bigger screen for 12 Golden Ducks and move it to From Vegas to Macau II. It even stole a couple of Triumph in the Skies' screens from Thursday on the weekend which shows how well it has been doing in theaters. It will not beat last year's predecessor on opening weekend (in either just the 4 day opening weekend or altogether including sneaks) but it will likely beat its total gross.

The only disappointment of the weekend is 12 Golden Ducks. Last year, it won the CNY battle with 1.76m but this year, it will start its run with nearly $500,000 less than last year. Still, it did pull in over 1m which does not make it a big loser but everyone largely expected this to win over all the Chinese language releases this week.

Even though an animation release won with a breakout performance this week, Penguins of Madagascar has to commended for not only hanging in there with the big films this week but managing to defeat Kingsman on the weekend. It could have easily been swallowed by Doraemon and the other animation releases but it fought back after weak previews last weekend. Word of mouth is very good for this cartoon.

The top 4 from this year and last year are nearly interchangeable but where it really diverges is the supporting cast. With only Kingsman and Penguins of Madagascar alone, those 2 combine for over 1.8m vs. less than 500k for the Jack Ryan and Saving Mr. Banks duo from last year.

Awesome results for Stand By Me, Doraemon.

Has Takashi Yamazaki's previous films performed well in HK? That could be a big factor as it was in Japan (giving the film more credibility among adults). His notable previous films include The Eternal Zero, Space Battleship Yamato, the Always franchise, and recently the Parasyte films.

I'm assuming HK has come to favor 3D/CGI animation over 2D like most of the world now, so does that explain its success, too? This is the first 3D/CGI Doraemon film, afterall.

Little bit disappointed with Hong Kong here. The lack of western films in release (especially new releases) around Chinese New Year is looking a lot like Mainland China.

Nope. Most of Takashi Yamazaki's films are small grossers. Parasyte was released here last month and is still playing in theaters but the main reason why Doraemon did well is because of the Doraemon brand.

Yes. 3D is more popular here than 2D. It has been like this since Avatar. If Doraemon was only in 2D, I think it might have lost against Triumph in the Skies. The 3D ticket prices is what sets it apart from the rest of the top 5.

I can't be disappointed with the lack of Western films out this year. After all, last year was way worse. 4 new CNY themed releases took in over 1m each and the only new Western films were a delayed Jack Ryan and a delayed Saving Mr. Banks. This year might have seen only 1 new Western film but Penguins of Madagascar will rake in almost double what last year's Western openers made. Add Kingsman and Fifty Shades together with Penguins and those 3 triples all the Western films combined from last year.

Of course, a Western film won CNY in 2012/2013 so these 2 years are a bit of reversal but next year might see a Western film win again.

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			February 22
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	11,689	34,940	+198.9%	-3.3%
2	From Vegas to Macau II	3,259	22,343	+585.6%	-18.0%
3	Triumph in the Skies	8,052	18,449	+129.1%	-29.7%
4	Penguins of Madagascar	4,376	16,824	+284.5%	-1.8%
5	12 Golden Ducks	1,550	15,798	+919.2%	-27.0%
6	Kingsman: The Secret Service	10,118	12,569	+24.2%	-16.2%
7	Shaun the Sheep	--	3,079	--	-16.8%
8	An Inspector Calls	--	2,982	--	-25.7%
9	Fifty Shades of Grey	5,951	2,786	-53.2%	+2.6%
10	The Imitation Game	1,046	2,301	+120.0%	-14.6%

Fantastic for Doraemon. All the Chinese language films registered the biggest drops from yesterday. Very good for Penguins of Madagascar. Huge declines for Kingsman and Shaun the Sheep. Fifty Shades of Grey saw a slight increase due to more showtimes today and being an adult romance movie.

How much would you say the release schedule/film industry in HK is influenced by the Mainland at the moment?

5-10% max. While mainland films have been making inroads in HK's box office, HK is still dominated by Hollywood. Local productions have perked up in the past little while but mainland films largely remain on the outside looking in. Usually the only time when they do damage is during Chinese New Year or Easter weekend otherwise they rarely do well. Mainland films work around the schedules of Hollywood films here not the other way around.

	Sunday				February 22
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	20,485	43,456	+112.1%	-3.3%
2	From Vegas to Macau II	7,392	35,830	+384.7%	-9.8%
3	Triumph in the Skies	17,158	31,911	+86.0%	-23.7%
4	12 Golden Ducks	5,607	31,730	+465.9%	-11.9%
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	27,974	23,906	-14.5%	-4.8%
6	Penguins of Madagascar	8,203	20,973	+155.7%	-6.4%
7	Shaun the Sheep	--	5,612	--	-12.5%
8	An Inspector Calls	--	5,227	--	-14.2%
9	Fifty Shades of Grey	15,224	4,838	-68.2%	-3.3%
10	The Imitation Game	2,320	3,861	+66.4%	-9.0%

Superb hold for Doraemon. Atrocious for Triumph in the Skies. Very good for Kingsman.

	Weekend adm.			Feb 19-22
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	55,634	170,759	+206.9%
2	Triumph in the Skies	43,430	159,294	+266.8%
3	From Vegas to Macau II	18,796	149,167	+693.6%
4	12 Golden Ducks	20,923	143,043	+583.7%
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	92,266	100,502	+8.9%
6	Penguins of Madagascar	15,489	83,183	+437.0%
7	An Inspector Calls	--	22,837	--
8	Shaun the Sheep	--	22,830	--
9	Fifty Shades of Grey	68,226	20,604	-69.8%
10	The Imitation Game	5,151	16,294	+216.3%

Nothing here to report except Shaun the Sheep won Fri-Sun over An Inspector Calls but its weaker Thursday cost it the admissions victory over An Inspector Calls.

	Weekend Estimates			Feb 19
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	$1,890,000	--	$2,975,000
2	Triumph in the Skies	$1,430,000	--	$2,085,000
3	From Vegas to Macau II	$1,400,000	--	$1,805,000
4	12 Golden Ducks	$1,285,000	--	$1,780,000
5	Kingsman: The Secret Service	$940,000	+9.2%	$2,365,500

Doraemon increases from projections with that strong Sunday. All the Chinese language releases held worse than expected and Kingsman had an unexpected flurry to finish the weekend which saw it climb over Penguins of Madagascar for 5th this weekend.

	Monday adm.	(so far)			February 23
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Stand By Me Doraemon	--	22,451	--	-35.7%
2	Penguins of Madagascar	--	10,426	--	-38.0%
3	From Vegas to Macau II	--	9,494	--	-57.5%
4	Triumph in the Skies	--	7,046	--	-61.8%
5	12 Golden Ducks	--	6,190	--	-60.8%
6	Kingsman: The Secret Service	--	5,654	--	-55.0%
7	Fifty Shades of Grey	--	1,608	--	-42.3%
8	Shaun the Sheep	--	1,395	--	-54.7%
9	An Inspector Calls	--	1,356	--	-54.5%
10	The Imitation Game	--	821	--	-64.3%

And the CNY inflated admissions continue into the work week. Most of the primary schools here get Monday/Tuesday off as well. This is why the cartoons and kids movies have the best holds today. It is looking like From Vegas to Macau 2 will be the primary CNY movie choice for the upcoming weeks. Kingsman had another solid hold.

Fast & Furious 7 has already racked up 1.263m in 2 days. By Saturday, it will have already passed Fast Five. By late Monday night/early Tuesday morning, it will overtake Fast & Furious 6 as the biggest in the franchise. 4-day weekend should be just over 2.55m. 5-day should be in the 3.15m area. 6-day should be around 3.65-3.7m.

Little Big Master continues to surprise. 5m is looking likely.

I wish theater operators were a bit nicer to Kingsman: The Secret Service. If it didn't experience the CNY massacre in week 2, it could have easily passed 5m, beating Skyfall's total. Theaters need to stop giving shitty showtimes to Kingsman already. It is in week 8 and still selling out shows despite the small screens and terrible times. What more does it need to prove that it should stay in theaters? I guess the problem for Kingsman is that it does not have the best pre-sales but it more than makes up for that with beastly walk-ins.

___________________________________________________________
Avengers 2 is looking monstrous with only 2 days of pre-selling. 75% full in IMAX. 80% full in some theaters already on opening day in 3D. The reason why I bolded the 3D part is that people are actively wanting to watch this in 3D versus the lack of 3D pre-sales for Fast & Furious 7. This monster is looking very good for 4.5m OW and with the huge ticket prices, 5m OW is possible.

Get ready for the biggest non-holiday OD/OW of all time.

Let's compare the ticket prices of Transformers 4 with Avengers 2.

vs.

Cyberport: =
Palace IFC: -$15
Hollywood: =
The ONE: -$5
Cinematheque: =
Mongkok: -$5
Palace APM: +$5
Kwai Fong: =
Tsuen Wan: =
Kingswood Ginza: +$15

Prices at Broadway vary but at most locations, they only vary by $5, which is really saying something since Transformers 4 was 24 minutes longer than Avengers 2. If Avengers 2 had the same runtime as Transformers 4, we would have seen at least a $10 increase.

Festival Walk

New

Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D - 31 showings

What a monster. It will occupy 5 screens before 3 PM and all screens after 3 PM.

The ONE

New

Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D - 27 showings

At The ONE, Avengers 2 runs away with 90% of the showtimes on Thursday (27 in total). Fast & Furious 7 gets 2 while Wild Tales receives 1.

Pre-sales for The Avengers 2 are fantastic. It will beat Avengers pre-sales start of 47,000 and might even defeat Harry Potter's OD pre-sales record of 62,089. It is looking at a 1m OD and a 5m+ OW.

Festival Walk
	Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D
Day	Time	Seats sold	Seats available	% filled
Apr. 23	10:00 AM	33	138	23.91%
	10:00 AM	36	156	23.08%
	11:00 AM	100	354	28.25%
	11:00 AM	7	144	4.86%
	12:00 PM	57	156	36.54%
	1:00 PM	12	138	8.70%
	1:00 PM	8	156	5.13%
	1:00 PM	88	354	24.86%
	2:00 PM	6	144	4.17%
	2:00 PM	80	156	51.28%
	3:00 PM	11	127	8.66%
	3:00 PM	19	138	13.77%
	4:00 PM	14	118	11.86%
	4:00 PM	12	156	7.69%
	4:00 PM	100	354	28.25%
	4:00 PM	18	144	12.50%
	5:00 PM	103	156	66.03%
	6:00 PM	22	138	15.94%
	6:00 PM	9	118	7.63%
	7:00 PM	25	156	16.03%
	7:00 PM	208	354	58.76%
	7:00 PM	27	144	18.75%
	7:00 PM	108	156	69.23%
	8:00 PM	45	127	35.43%
	9:00 PM	13	138	9.42%
	9:00 PM	14	118	11.86%
	9:00 PM	7	156	4.49%
	9:00 PM	165	354	46.61%
	10:00 PM	14	144	9.72%
	10:00 PM	87	156	55.77%
	10:00 PM	5	127	3.94%
Total		1453	5475	26.54%

Very good for Avengers 2. I see an opening day pre-sales admissions of about 50,000-55,000 and 78,000 admissions opening day.

Movie	OD pre-sales adm.	% diff
Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D	47,647
Transformers: Age of Extinction	30,850	+54.4%
The Amazing Spider-Man 2	54,986	-13.3%
Captain America 2	13,794	+245.4%
Monsters University	34,005	+40.1%
Man of Steel	12,350	+285.8%
Iron Man 3	46,074	+3.4%
Iron Man 2	31,977	+49.0%
The Dark Knight Rises	38,750	+23.0%
The Amazing Spider-Man	32,580	+46.2%
The Avengers	47,317	+0.7%
Transformers 3	44,161	+7.9%
Harry Potter 7-2	62,089	-23.3%
Toy Story 3	32,294	+47.5%
Pirates 4	21,559	+121.0%
Shrek 3	49,634	-4.0%
The Hobbit	18,440	+158.4%
Mission Impossible 4	24,390	+95.4%

Slightly weaker start for The Avengers but still above The Avengers opening day pre-sales. Saturday should be very massive, possibly setting a new record of over 150,000 admissions.

	Thursday			April 24
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	--	71,961	--
2	Fast & Furious 7	--	2,749	--
3	Little Big Master	--	1,339	--
4	Two Thumbs Up	--	574	--
5	Wild Tales	--	410	--
6	Insanity	--	331	--
7	Kabukicho Love Hotel	--	253	--
8	Child 44	--	217	--
9	The New Girlfriend	--	175	--
10	Citizenfour	--	127	--

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D	71,961				71,961
Transformers: Age of Extinction	60,235	60,427	93,033	94,573	308,268
The Amazing Spider-Man 2	89,743	40,390	61,738	59,582	251,453
The Avengers	67,741	76,410	149,832	130,495	424,478
Iron Man 3	76,778	80,693	136,469	138,031	431,971
The Amazing Spider-Man		64,471	78,763	89,389	232,623
Harry Potter 7-2	101,532	87,419	127,827	127,392	444,170
Gap (from Transformers: Age of Extinction)	11,726	-48,701	-141,734	-236,307
Gap (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2)	-17,782	-58,172	-119,910	-179,492
Gap (from Iron Man 3)	-4,817	-85,510	-221,979	-360,010
Gap (from The Avengers)	4,220	-72,190	-222,022	-352,517
Gap (from Harry Potter 7-2)	-29,571	-116,990	-244,817	-372,209

Good opening day. It is slightly behind Iron Man 3 but it also is $10-$15 HKD more expensive. IMAX is a whopping $20-$30 HKD more expensive.

Actuals will be posted tomorrow.

Pathetic.

Really? It's a good opening day. It could still hit 1m in actuals due to high ticket prices.

Actuals have come in and Avengers 2 has a new opening day record according to a reliable blogger.

Thursday actual: Between $1,224,057 and $1,262,712 US ($9,500,000 - $9,800,000 HKD)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had an opening day of $1,233,114 so we just need full actuals to confirm it.

	Top 11 Opening Days
Rank	Movie	US Gross	HK Gross
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D	$1,238,230	$9,610,000
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$1,233,114	$9,560,768
3	Spider-Man 3	$974,580	$7,556,265
4	Transformers: Age of Extinction	$973,956	$7,550,000
5	Pirates of the Caribbean 3	$869,176	$6,800,000
6	Iron Man 3	$851,192	$6,614,837
7	Harry Potter 7-2	$821,324	$6,368,018
8	The Avengers	$779,647	$6,044,881
9	Transformers 3	$741,998	$5,752,975
10	The Dark Knight Rises	$666,307	$5,166,114
11	Monsters University	$648,969	$5,031,687

Inflation wins. Awesome opening day.

Can it hit 2m on Saturday?

Updated Avengers 2 opening day total. It now includes the full HKD amount unrounded.

	Top 11 Opening Days
Rank	Movie	US Gross	HK Gross
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D	$1,242,606	$9,611,044
2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$1,233,114	$9,560,768
3	Spider-Man 3	$974,580	$7,556,265
4	Transformers: Age of Extinction	$973,956	$7,550,000
5	Pirates of the Caribbean 3	$869,176	$6,800,000
6	Iron Man 3	$851,192	$6,614,837
7	Harry Potter 7-2	$821,324	$6,368,018
8	The Avengers	$779,647	$6,044,881
9	Transformers 3	$741,998	$5,752,975
10	The Dark Knight Rises	$666,307	$5,166,114
11	Monsters University	$648,969	$5,031,687

	Friday				April 25
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	--	74,471	--	+3.5%
2	Fast & Furious 7	--	3,655	--	+33.0%
3	Little Big Master	--	1,737	--	+29.7%
4	Two Thumbs Up	--	746	--	+30.0%
5	Wild Tales	--	635	--	+54.9%
6	Insanity	--	393	--	+18.7%
7	Child 44	--	343	--	+58.1%
8	Kabukicho Love Hotel	--	300	--	+18.6%
9	The New Girlfriend	--	230	--	+31.4%
10	The Lazarus Effect	--	146	--	--

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D	71,961	74,471			146,432
Transformers: Age of Extinction	60,235	60,427	93,033	94,573	308,268
The Amazing Spider-Man 2	89,743	40,390	61,738	59,582	251,453
The Avengers	67,741	76,410	149,832	130,495	424,478
Iron Man 3	76,778	80,693	136,469	138,031	431,971
The Amazing Spider-Man		64,471	78,763	89,389	232,623
Harry Potter 7-2	101,532	87,419	127,827	127,392	444,170
Gap (from Transformers: Age of Extinction)	11,726	25,770	-67,263	-161,836
Gap (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2)	-17,782	16,299	-45,439	-179,492
Gap (from Iron Man 3)	-4,817	-11,039	-147,508	-285,539
Gap (from The Avengers)	4,220	2,281	-147,551	-278,046
Gap (from Harry Potter 7-2)	-29,571	-42,519	-170,346	-297,738

Avengers 2 is falling behind Iron Man 3 in admissions and will most likely finish behind The Avengers in admissions but it will set records up and down this weekend in gross.

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			April 26
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	--	93,056	--	--

Wow. It has already amassed 1.5m in pre-sales alone. Even if it comes in below Iron Man 3's Saturday admissions, it will still be over 2m in gross. 6.5m OW seems to be a lock given the high ratio from admissions:gross. 7m OW might happen if it has a magnificent weekend.

	Opening	Saturday	3D showings
	Pirates 4	Toy Story 3	Transformers 3	Harry Potter 7-2	The Avengers	Iron Man 3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D
Pacific Place	21	28	28	22	27	27	22	22	29
Total	21	28	28	22	27	27	22	22	29
Palace APM	25	23	32	27	34	30	19	24	33
Total	25	28	35	34	37	34	28	29	37
Tsuen Wan	18	22	20	18	24	22	20	19	26
Total	18	22	22	21	24	25	22	21	26
Palace IFC	21	24	24	21	23	25	18	15	26
Total	21	24	24	21	23	25	18	15	26
Festival Walk	N/A	N/A	26	26	32	32	23	26	38
Total	N/A	N/A	33	32	32	36	29	27	38
The One	N/A	N/A	N/A	31	34	33	29	30	36
Total	N/A	N/A	N/A	33	34	35	33	31	37
The Grand Cinema	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	31	33	30	46
Total	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	40	37	39	34	53

Holy shit. The Grand is going all out showing it 53 times in 1 day. Amazing stuff.

Avengers 2 Friday actual - $1,253,590
Avengers 2 2-day total: $2,496,196

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Avengers: Age of Ultron	71,961	74,471	125,880		272,312
Transformers: Age of Extinction	60,235	60,427	93,033	94,573	308,268
The Amazing Spider-Man 2	89,743	40,390	61,738	59,582	251,453
The Avengers	67,741	76,410	149,832	130,495	424,478
Iron Man 3	76,778	80,693	136,469	138,031	431,971
The Amazing Spider-Man		64,471	78,763	89,389	232,623
Harry Potter 7-2	101,532	87,419	127,827	127,392	444,170
Gap (from Transformers: Age of Extinction)	11,726	25,770	58,617	-35,956
Gap (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2)	-17,782	16,299	80,441	-179,492
Gap (from Iron Man 3)	-4,817	-11,039	-21,628	-159,659
Gap (from The Avengers)	4,220	2,281	-21,671	-152,166
Gap (from Harry Potter 7-2)	-29,571	-42,519	-44,466	-171,858

So it has fallen behind The Avengers now but I don't think Marvel really cares about that.

	Saturday				April 26
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	--	125,880	--	+69.0%

Does not beat Iron Man 3 admissions but still a massive number.
Saturday estimate: 2.09m

	Weekend Projections			April 24
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	$6,625,000	--	$6,625,000
2	Fast & Furious 7	$165,000	-80.6%	$7,325,000
3	Little Big Master	$85,000	-76.3%	$5,700,000
4	Two Thumbs Up	$31,000	-85.1%	$1,555,000
5	Wild Tales	$27,000	-53.3%	$138,800

It did not come close to the opening day admissions but it did not have to as Avengers: Age of Ultron soared to a record breaking 1.23m on opening day. Friday inched up 1% while Saturday will be the biggest day of all time ever with it breaking the 2m mark in 1 day. Avengers 2 crushed all other superhero/big blockbuster OW's near it with it besting its nearest competitor, Transformers 4, by over 1m. As a result, it pummeled the 2 big holdovers Fast & Furious 7 & Little Big Master down over 75% this weekend.

Fast & Furious 7 has lifted the series into blockbuster territory in HK. Once regarded as a bit player for a week, Fast & Furious 7 has achieved massive success here, up 1191% over Fast and Furious. Though Avengers 2 has crumbled its legs, its total up to this point has made up for it. The Fast & Furious series has always been lapped by the Southeast Asia countries but this has finally made its mark as a tentpole release. This should be able to muscle its way toward 7.6m before leaving theaters.

Surprise hit of the spring, Little Big Master, continued its impressive run by passing 5.5m this week. 6m looks out of reach but it has shown to be quite resilient the past few weeks, garnering great word of mouth and capturing the hearts of many.

	Daily admissions (OW)
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Avengers: Age of Ultron	71,961	74,471	125,880	123,538	395,850
Transformers: Age of Extinction	60,235	60,427	93,033	94,573	308,268
The Amazing Spider-Man 2	89,743	40,390	61,738	59,582	251,453
The Avengers	67,741	76,410	149,832	130,495	424,478
Iron Man 3	76,778	80,693	136,469	138,031	431,971
The Amazing Spider-Man		64,471	78,763	89,389	232,623
Harry Potter 7-2	101,532	87,419	127,827	127,392	444,170
Gap (from Transformers: Age of Extinction)	11,726	25,770	58,617	87,582
Gap (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2)	-17,782	16,299	80,441	144,397
Gap (from Iron Man 3)	-4,817	-11,039	-21,628	-36,121
Gap (from The Avengers)	4,220	2,281	-21,671	-28,628
Gap (from Harry Potter 7-2)	-29,571	-42,519	-44,466	-48,320

	Sunday				April 26
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	--	123,538	--	-1.9%

	Weekend Estimates			April 23
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	$6,525,000	--	$6,525,000
2	Fast & Furious 7	$165,000	-80.6%	$7,325,000
3	Little Big Master	$85,000	-76.3%	$5,700,000
4	Two Thumbs Up	$31,000	-85.1%	$1,555,000
5	Wild Tales	$27,000	-53.3%	$138,800

Avengers 2 got 3 records that matters the most this weekend: Biggest OD of all time, Biggest single day of all time (Saturday) and biggest OW of all time. Impressive.

Next weekend, local movie Helios will be released but since the May 1 holiday falls on a Friday, I see another 3m weekend coming for Avengers 2 bringing its total to around 12.5m.

Minions has already fallen behind Monsters University's 2nd Thursday in admissions. At this point, it looks like it will go down about 55% for a 1.6m 2nd weekend and around a 7.2m total in 11 days. The sequel is getting slammed on review sites. It's definitely making an impact this weekend as many showtimes are more than half empty in the afternoon. Ant-Man has surprised. It is beating Minions despite a 2:1 showtimes handicap and it will be the winner this weekend unless if theaters decide to give Minions a huge push on Saturday/Sunday. It looks like most theaters won't do this, however, as MCL has given Ant-Man bigger screens and The Grand has upgraded Ant-Man with more showtimes and chopped Minions showtimes down on Saturday/Sunday. Early word of mouth is looking really good.

I see Ant-Man winning with 2.1m this weekend while Minions will slip to 2nd with 1.6m. Inside Out previews continue this weekend ahead of next week's launch. I do not foresee a big opening though. It does have the Pixar brand but this movie is a hard sell for audiences here. There's no cute characters or name recognition to hang on to. This is probably why Disney let Minions have the July 9th weekend and moved Inside Out 2 weeks later. It could open with about 2m next weekend.

Yep the WoM is not-so-hot here as well for Minions and similar to HK, Ant-Man is not getting the similar screen timings like a Marvel superhero movie gets here.