IndustriousAngel

wow, that's an astonishing hold! (also excellent for PiB, obviously)

Saturday update from insidekino.de; no changes for A2 but M3gan lower and Puss higher than first estimates

wow, that's quite good for M3gan - it's starting without any competition but I was fearing a shortness of screens. And extremely good for Avatar3 of course, maybe 700k can indeed happen!

That's in the usual range, maybe on the higher end - and dont't forget the lead is played by well-known Viennese actor Nicholas Ofczarek; that's why the movie got a lot of very favourable reviews and interviews here (much more than, say, Schule der magischen Tiere or other children's movies).

while the language is similar, there's still some cultural differences between most of Germany and Austria - that's why many German productions don't sell as well here as on the home market. The exception is Bavaria - which is much more similar, from the cultural POV - and accordingly, Bavarian movies may do better business here than in overall Germany (but not better than in Bavaria, obviously ...). Last year's Guglhupfgeschwader had an impressive run in Germany (1,37mil total, best of the series), but that got dwarfed by its success in Austria where it crossed 300k admissions.

Germany's Top20 last weekend: title admissions th. PTA total adm. total € drop week 1 Avatar 2 1.132.880 739 1.533 6.510.435 87.516.932 +6 4 2 Puss in Boots 2 255.013 633 403 997.853 8.392.480 +24 3 3 Operation Fortune 125.947 480 262 142.615 1.344.431 - 1 4 Der Räuber Hotzenplotz 99.033 710 139 654.143 4.756.232 +12 5 5 Oskars Kleid 86.909 579 150 341.532 3.103.823 +14 3 6 The Banshees of Inisherin 63.416 120 528 69.125 658.625 - 1 7 Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 54.644 381 143 2.529.556 18.496.566 +56 15 8 I Wanna Dance with Somebody 48.621 430 113 209.826 2.122.378 +5 3 9 Was man von hier aus sehen kann 37.069 143 259 93.218 831.775 +32 2 10 Black Panther 2 18.954 182 104 1.496.801 16.979.479 -12 9 11 Einfach mal was Schönes 16.336 282 58 606.317 5.606.997 -16 8 12 Hui Buh und das Hexenschloss 15.783 277 57 519.247 3.959.869 +8 10 13 Belle & Sebastian 2 14.611 253 58 14.634 110.146 - 1 14 Triangle of Sadness 13.708 126 109 429.881 4.127.266 +25 13 15 Strange World 13.569 236 57 284.048 2.235.104 -1 7 16 The Menu 12.396 130 95 307.477 2.891.647 +14 8 17 Die Mucklas... 11.594 167 69 270.027 1.906.503 +44 12 18 She Said 11.109 121 92 121.904 1.107.407 +28 5 19 Rheingold 10.172 97 105 991.601 9.845.635 +4 11 20 Terrifier 2 9.796 157 62 93.824 994.812 +30 5 Wonderful weekend - nearly every release had some satisfying numbers! Operation Fortune opened much higher than the latest Guy Richie crime comedy, and The Banshees of Inisherin had a healthy PTA - as did Puss in Boots 2 which is making up for the depressed OW. And then there's Avatar 2 which is simply blowing everything out of the water - highest 4th weekend ever! 9mil total are a lock and 10mil in play … crazy! And congratulations to domestic children's book adaption Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 which crossed 2,5mil total - a lot stronger than part 1 which was already considered a big success! Once more, Austria's weekend was even better, Avatar is already past 700k here (the 4th weekend was actually its biggest to date), Puss and Fortune and Hotzenplotz were a lot stronger, too - so we had 4 releases >10k admissions. Next weekend: Of course, with holidays now officially over, we have to get used to more "normal" numbers, but there's little doubt Avatar 2 will continue to draw in the crowds - can it come near 700k? The only "big" opener will be M3gan … and while there's no other horror release in theaters atm, there's very little breathing space in the evening - Top 3 would be a surprise. As an aside - I have no idea what Disney is doing with Strange World … on a weekend where nearly every release increased (and family stuff even more so), this dropped again. Just sad.

in general, German dubbing leads to a much easier understandable movie - voices are mixed louder and music / background are a bit faded, compared to the original, plus most voice actors pronounce their text very clearly. It's extremely rare in a dubbed movie that you get mumbled or in any way hard-to-understand voices. And yes, there are original shows with subtitles and ones without, those with usually in arthouses, those without in "normal" cinemas in cities with bigger english-speaking and/or student communities. At my cinema, Avatar2 as an example is playing 9 shows a day midweek and 10 Thu-Sun, and one show every day is the original version - sometimes in 3D on the biggest screen but also on smaller screens and 2D. As a rule, OVs are selling better per show, especially during opening week - but that's probably because there's so few of them so people get crammed in. The Lord-of-the-Rings triple features every December are dubbed on the biggest screen and OV on a smaller one.

maybe ... it's also possible that during the pandemic many people simply lost interest in the theatrical experience and are only slowly pulled back by big-scale events (No Time to Die, Maverick, Minions 2 and now Avatar 2). The fact that a few releases had actual increases last weekend might be a hint that movie-going as a possibility is back in people's awareness.

As a small market, Austria often gets overlooked, but (as was the case with quite a few other releases last year, Maverick for instance) Avatar2 is doing even better here than in Germany; it should be around 800k after this weekend and 1mil total is a very safe bet - the "Diamond Ticket", a feat no release has managed in Austria since the original Avatar. (Ice Age 4 came close with about 950k admissions)

The Nazis might have something to do with it since a lot of artists - including directors, actors, writers and composers - had to leave (or simply left) Germany and Austria in the 30's. Classic Hollywood had a big German-speaking community - Fritz Lang, Petter Lorre, Billy Wilder, Erich Korngold, Michael Curtiz ... https://www.filmportal.de/thema/die-emigration-filmschaffender-waehrend-des-nationalsozialismus There's also another effect at work I think - and that was after the Third Reich. Movies and comics were considered "lesser" arts (if art at all) and as such got less recognition. The German Feuilleton had a pretty snobby approach to these ... which has changed only in recent decades (concerning comics, the recognition as "real" art only happened in the 21st century here)

as expected, estimates went up, for all releases: #1: Avatar2 - 1000k #2: PiB2 - 250k #3: Fortune - 135k

which means that Avatar 2 will probably come in around 1mil with actuals 😜

verrry nice weekend coming, and now other releases are catching up a bit, too. Also good opening for Fortune, much better than Gentlemen iirc

A-, 8/10 ... spectacular visuals, very simple plot which is definitely not filling the running time. I'd prefer this movie to be at least 30min shorter (or spend those 30min developing the kid's characters) but overall, an enjoyable cinematic experience. Despite CPU time getting cheaper all the time, this is way ahead of other CGI-heavy movies.

Germany's Top16 last weekend: title admissions th. PTA total adm. total € drop week 1 Avatar 2 1.067.150 737 1.448 4.716.276 63.488.134 +45 3 2 Puss in Boots 2 206.072 613 336 566.575 4.795.187 +70 2 3 Der Räuber Hotzenplotz 88.794 723 123 475.497 3.468.588 +101 4 4 Oskars Kleid 75.985 526 144 195.501 1.785.398 +93 2 5 I Wanna Dance with Somebody 46.394 408 114 129.749 1.307.275 +98 2 6 Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 35.050 382 92 2.441.302 17.862.994 +246 14 7 Was man von hier aus sehen kann 28.004 124 226 32.266 287.609 - 1 8 Black Panther 2 21.475 204 105 1.462.067 16.623.074 +52 8 9 Einfach mal was Schönes 19.527 360 54 575.915 5.331.545 +134 7 10 Hui Buh und das Hexenschloss 14.644 308 48 491.033 3.750.782 +154 9 11 Strange World 13.676 307 45 257.752 2.039.143 +40 6 12 Triangle of Sadness 10.950 132 115 407.349 3.906.383 +201 12 13 Teddybjørnens jul 10.950 309 35 232.249 1.652.245 -54 7 14 The Menu 10.858 155 70 286.813 2.699.080 +99 7 15 Rheingold 9.804 99 99 974.551 9.714.309 +15 10 16 She Said 8.700 158 55 101.010 915.037 +69 4 Wow, some good numbers - Avatar 2 is laying down a bid for 9mil total or more, Puss in Boots 2 is having the numbers I expected for OW and domestic longrunner Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 quintupled last week's numbers and has a chance at 2,5mil. total! Not too shabby for the only decent opener either (I wasn't aware this got so few theaters …). Next weekend: No big openers as the holiday season closes; The Banshees Of Inisherin comes with critical acclaim but few expectations and the latest Guy Ritchie crime comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre will probably see some mild success, but Avatar 2 will continue to dominate the market all evening long which makes it really hard for other grown-up releases to survive.

Really exciting, yes - but otoh, there's such an overall lack of appealing releases over the holidays, that's hard to swallow. right now, it's Avatar or nothing it seems, and that's a bit sad - since summer, we've seen a lot of especially domestic releases doing surprisingly good business, and that's obviously over with Avatar grabbing nearly the whole evening and many afternoons, too.

happy new year everyone and to a better BO and many fine runs!

The way it's holding up, 8mil admissions total is the lower limit I'd say. 9mil possible and 10mil at least not impossible! Even if holidays will end, there's simply no to very little competition on the horizon, it will keep the bigger and biggest screens all through January and on. Mid-Feb there will be Antman3 but Antman was not very big here.

early weekend estimates for Germany from insidekino.de: #1: Avatar 2 - 900k admissions (+22%) #2: Puss in Boots 2 - 200k (+65%) #3: Hotzenplotz - 90k (+203% !!)

that's pretty much a given, even Rogue One increased a bit on the comparable weekend; the question is if it can reach 1mil again.

Germany's Top14 last weekend: title admissions th. PTA total adm. total € drop week 1 Avatar 2 735.252 737 998 2.547.800 34.733.093 -36 2 2 Puss in Boots 2 120.980 606 200 149.080 1.257.500 - 1 3 Der Räuber Hotzenplotz 44.285 708 63 299.694 2.176.588 -42 3 4 Oskars Kleid 39.434 512 77 40.964 379.038 - 1 5 Teddybjørnens jul 23.777 565 42 201.159 1.307.921 -13 6 6 I Wanna Dance with Somebody 23.432 382 61 38.979 385.896 - 1 7 Black Panther 2 14.099 221 64 1.418.414 16.181.897 -56 7 8 Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 10.118 391 26 2.383.567 17.441.560 -53 13 9 Violent Night 9.892 238 42 150.985 1.451.454 -59 4 10 Strange World 9.774 328 30 229.425 1.821.062 -68 5 11 Rheingold 8.553 109 78 957.070 9.580.218 -34 9 12 Einfach mal was Schönes 8.333 391 21 536.384 4.972.751 -71 6 13 Hui Buh und das Hexenschloss 5.768 327 18 464.274 3.550.419 -61 8 14 The Menu 5.444 164 33 265.385 2.504.884 -62 6 Massive weekend for Avatar 2, so-so for every other release. Strange World <10k admissions in week 5, what's become of Disney Animation?! Puss in Boots 2 stayed behind my expectations … as did the Withney Houston biopic. In Austria, once more, better and/or different numbers … Avatar 2 is already past 320k admissions here, Puss-in-Boots opened within my expectations (24k), so much better, and Strange World had an increase and should be somewhere around 40k by now, nearly 75% ahead of Germany. I Wanna Dance flopped equally hard, though. Next weekend: No big openers but with the low levels we're seeing atm (except Avatar of course) even a small release like domestic bestseller adaption Was man von hier aus sehen kann might make it into the top 5! Of course, general business should be much better, we'll see some healthy increases, some releases should more than double this weekend's numbers.

WOM seems excellent, this should be the biggest 24th-on-a-Sunday weekend ever! Sadly, onle one other release >50k ...

once more Austria distancing Germany

Germany's Top14 last weekend: title admissions th. PTA total adm. total € drop week 1 Avatar 2 1.157.409 742 1.560 1.331.885 18.293.056 - 1 2 Der Räuber Hotzenplotz 76.120 707 108 220.003 1.620.624 -18 2 3 Black Panther 2 31.859 385 83 1.383.979 15.866.177 -56 6 4 Strange World 30.308 467 65 204.817 1.650.711 -20 4 5 Einfach mal was Schönes 28.342 647 44 510.966 4.749.885 -38 5 6 Teddybjørnens jul 27.385 609 45 161.629 1.146.165 -0 5 7 Violent Night 24.252 421 58 129.644 1.256.703 -35 3 8 Die Schule der magischen Tiere 2 21.349 486 44 2.355.521 17.246.913 -17 12 9 She Said 16.041 257 62 65.380 589.432 -40 2 10 Terrifier 2 15.286 280 55 57.912 614.798 -60 2 11 Hui Buh und das Hexenschloss 14.732 476 31 450.277 3.458.105 -27 7 12 The Menu 14.299 278 51 252.882 2.391.769 -52 5 13 Rheingold 13.053 191 68 943.480 9.481.909 -20 8 14 Triangle of Sadness 8.875 157 57 377.622 3.621.418 -1 10 Finally some good news, very good opening for Avatar 2, but steep drops for all other evening releases (with the exception of arthouse fare). Family releases had ok holds but the level is pretty low, hopefully they can increase a bit over the holidays. Avatar 2 is on a way to well over 6mil total with this kind of opening, but might go a lot higher if WOM is favourable! Next weekend: Saturday falling on 24th is about the worst possible date for the BO but I have little doubt that Avatar2 will collect those missing shows over the following days. As a big opener, we have the 2nd Puss in Boots movie; those were always pretty popular (a long time ago however) and even with Sat 24th I can see something like a 250k OW or hopefully higher. The problem is that, with Avatar2 also grabbing a lot of afternoon shows, there's a very limited number of screens, let's see how this plays out.

I don't really know but I think Germany is the only country with a 4-day-weekend? Even Austria, which is serverd by the same distributors and mostly chains, has a 3-day-one.