Bluebomb

No, movies come out on Thursday here. Captain America 3 releasing on Wednesday just means they will add in Wednesday gross to its OW. That means it has a great chance of breaking the OW record. I am so jealous! Thursday Actuals March 24 LW TW Movie Last Thu. (USD) Thu. (USD) % chg Theaters Days Total -- 1 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- $1,067,927 -- -- 1 $1,067,927 -- 2 Zootopia -- $250,898 -- -- 1 $670,999 1 3 Kung Fu Panda 3 $103,152 $131,239 +27.2% -- 8 $1,722,836 -- 4 Heaven in the Dark -- $25,733 -- -- 1 $25,733 2 5 London Has Fallen $38,682 $15,439 -60.1% -- 22 $1,839,922 5m OW incoming?! :shock: :noway: Zootopia did great. It should be close to 2m after this weekend. Kung Fu Panda 3 did OK. It will clear 2m on Friday and be over 2.5m by Sunday. Top 10 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 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice $1,067,927 $8,300,000 4 Spider-Man 3 $974,580 $7,556,265 5 Transformers: Age of Extinction $973,956 $7,550,000 6 Pirates of the Caribbean 3 $869,176 $6,800,000 7 Iron Man 3 $851,192 $6,614,837 8 Harry Potter 7-2 $821,324 $6,368,018 9 The Avengers $779,647 $6,044,881 10 Deadpool $753,891 $5,848,267 Only the 3rd 1m+ OD ever. And Batman v Superman did it with ease against competition from Zootopia AND Kung Fu Panda 3. What does this mean for Captain America 3 with virtually zero competition? 8m 5-day OW? 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 Star Wars: The Force Awakens Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Pacific Place 21 28 28 22 27 27 22 22 29 22 16 Total 21 28 28 22 27 27 22 22 29 22 16 Palace APM 25 23 32 27 34 30 19 24 33 18 17 Total 25 28 35 34 37 34 28 29 37 19 19 Tsuen Wan 18 22 20 18 24 22 20 19 26 14 11 Total 18 22 22 21 24 25 22 21 26 17 13 Palace IFC 21 24 24 21 23 25 18 15 26 24 15 Total 21 24 24 21 23 25 18 15 26 24 15 Festival Walk N/A N/A 26 26 32 32 23 26 38 25 N/A Total N/A N/A 33 32 32 36 29 27 38 27 N/A The One N/A N/A N/A 31 34 33 29 30 36 18 15 Total N/A N/A N/A 33 34 35 33 31 37 21 17 The Grand Cinema N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 31 33 30 46 31 23 Total N/A N/A N/A N/A 40 37 39 34 53 35 26 This is why pricing is SO important. Forget that only 1 theater from that list cracked 20 showtimes on Saturday. Batman v Superman kicked so much ass with huge ticket prices.

Hot off the press: Captain America 3 will release on Wednesday April 27 and has already started pre-selling today. With this shift in release date, it seems likely now that Captain America will break 6m OW and possibly make 7m. Pricing for Captain America 3 is exactly the same as Batman v Superman.

Thursday March 24 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- 53,236 -- 2 Zootopia -- 20,937 -- 3 Kung Fu Panda 3 7,712 10,249 +32.9% 4 Heaven in the Dark -- 1,761 -- 5 London Has Fallen 2,814 1,092 -61.2% 6 The Tag-Along 2,299 748 -67.5% 7 The Danish Girl 1,929 627 -67.5% 8 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle 724 504 -30.4% 9 Room 1,158 420 -63.7% 10 Allegiant 2,305 416 -82.0% Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opening day estimate - $968,895 Zootopia opening day estimate - $280,555 Kung Fu Panda 3 2nd Thursday estimate - $133,237 Wow. Batman v Superman doesn't have the admissions but prices are sky high. Currently, it is estimated to be #5 OD of all time but it's $5,000 away from #4 and $6,000 away from #3. It's possible that it might have made over 1m on Thursday. It might exceed 5m this weekend depending on the rush factor. Opening day reviews are mixed with a 3.7/5. Zootopia opened amid fears of a pounding by Batman v Superman but it definitely held its own. It will make around 1.5m this weekend and close to 2m including sneaks which would secure itself as the highest opening weekend Easter animated release of all time. Zootopia would beat its nearest animated competitor, The Croods, by about 60%! Opening day reviews are glowing with a 4.7/5. Kung Fu Panda 3 had a suppressed 2nd Thursday with staunch competition coming from the 2 openers but it will see a massive surge this weekend where it will play much better to audiences. Reviews still sit at a very good 4.5/5. After this weekend, it will be close to 3m. Heaven in the Dark tried to play as a counter-programming film but it didn't even get off the ground floor. Average admissions per showing was below 25. London Has Fallen rounds out the top 5 with a pretty good total so far. Holidays will help a little bit. It might be able to edge its way to 2m when all is said and done. Friday adm. (so far) March 25 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- 51,575 -- +35.7% 2 Zootopia -- 24,304 -- +132.0% 3 Kung Fu Panda 3 5,879 16,321 +177.6% +240.7% 4 Heaven in the Dark -- 1,603 -- +156.5% 5 London Has Fallen 1,165 759 -34.8% +198.8% 6 The Danish Girl 933 744 -20.3% +359.3% 7 Room 828 557 -32.7% +338.6% 8 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle 367 399 +8.7% +113.4% 9 Spotlight 310 352 +13.5% -- 10 The Tag-Along 480 285 -40.6% +105.0% Batman v Superman nearly succeeds in beating its opening day admissions with its Good Friday pre-sales. Excellent increase for Zootopia. Could we see 35,000 or perhaps 40k today? Superb increase for Kung Fu Panda 3.

Thanks guys! It's people like you guys that keeps me going. =) On a totally vain note, this thread has reached an average of 100 views per post! Thanks to all my readers. Your interest has definitely not gone unnoticed. _____________________________________________________________________________________ At 6 PM, Batman v Superman has eclipsed 50,000 admissions and has likely secured a place in the top 5 for opening day of all time with 6 hours left to go.

Weekly Gross (Mon-Sun) Mar 14-20 LW TW Title Last Week (HKD) This Week (HKD) Days in release % chg Total (HKD) This Week (USD) Total (USD) -- 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 $2,522,147 $7,559,017 4 +199.7% $10,081,164 $967,981 $1,290,958 -- 2 Zootopia -- $3,158,555 0 -- $3,280,595 $404,473 $420,101 1 3 London Has Fallen $5,033,160 $3,061,642 18 -39.2% $13,524,997 $392,063 $1,731,964 4 4 Allegiant $3,008,796 $2,354,499 11 -21.7% $5,363,295 $301,508 $686,804 2 5 Gods of Egypt $4,437,682 $2,231,036 18 -49.7% $12,083,912 $285,698 $1,547,423 3 6 The Danish Girl $3,224,180 $1,682,019 25 -47.8% $13,360,529 $215,393 $1,710,902 6 7 Room $1,555,700 $1,191,823 18 -23.4% $4,008,867 $152,620 $513,361 -- 8 The Tag-Along $1,360,610 $1,018,155 4 -25.2% $1,114,671 $130,381 $142,740 7 9 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies $1,410,242 $846,832 11 -40.0% $2,257,074 $108,442 $289,033 9 10 Spotlight $865,819 $503,652 32 -41.8% $3,743,597 $64,495 $479,392 Yikes. The move to Easter weekend backfires in HK. Kung Fu Panda 3 comes in almost $500,000 US below Kung Fu Panda 2's OW even when you include sneaks. Now Kung Fu Panda 3 has to hope like heck that Easter renews interest in the animation flick otherwise it will finish lower than the 2nd's total. In the event that it does finish below KFP2's total by a considerable margin, we can blame the release date on this one. Kung Fu Panda 3's day and date release in China was a huge misstep and subdued grosses in Asia the last 2-3 weeks seem to support the same argument. If there's a Kung Fu Panda 4, Dreamworks needs to reconsider its release date strategy in Asia. On the flip side, Zootopia outperformed Kung Fu Panda 3's sneaks from last week despite doing so in treacherous conditions. It has seen weekend increases in nearly every Asian market and HK will definitely follow suit as demand for Batman v Superman eases. Decent hold for London Has Fallen. It has done pretty well in HK. Major disaster for Allegiant. Gods of Egypt is doing alright. HK's The Danish Girl gross passes Australia's TDG gross. Superb job. Thursday adm. (so far) March 24 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- 38,002 -- 2 Zootopia -- 10,475 -- 3 Kung Fu Panda 3 3,092 4,791 +54.9% 4 Heaven in the Dark -- 625 -- 5 London Has Fallen 720 254 -64.7% 6 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle 342 187 -45.3% 7 The Danish Girl 576 162 -71.9% 8 The Tag-Along 384 139 -63.8% 9 Room 406 127 -68.7% 10 Allegiant 981 104 -89.4% Good start for Batman v Superman. It will get over 50,000 admissions...perhaps 55,000-60,000 for today. Negative reviews won't affect admissions too much until Tuesday after the holiday period is over. Zootopia opened quite well considering the mammoth competition. Zootopia is expected to surge this weekend as holidays benefit kids films a lot and early weekend schedules sees Zootopia getting a few more showtimes. Kung Fu Panda 3 had a weaker Thursday but if it experiences a similar increase to Zootopia then the franchise won't be in bad shape against Kung Fu Panda 2 coming out of this weekend. Meh for Heaven in the Dark. Movie OD pre-sales adm. % diff Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 38,002 Deadpool 44,218 -14.1% Star Wars: The Force Awakens 30,870 +23.1% Avengers: Age of Ultron 3D 47,647 -20.2% Transformers: Age of Extinction 30,850 +23.2% The Amazing Spider-Man 2 54,986 -30.9% Captain America 2 13,794 +175.5% Monsters University 34,005 +11.8% Man of Steel 12,350 +207.7% Iron Man 3 46,074 -17.5% Iron Man 2 31,977 +18.8% The Dark Knight Rises 38,750 -1.9% The Amazing Spider-Man 32,580 +16.6% The Avengers 47,317 -19.7% Transformers 3 44,161 -13.9% Harry Potter 7-2 62,089 -38.8% Toy Story 3 32,294 +17.7% Pirates 4 21,559 +76.3% Shrek 3 49,634 -23.4% The Hobbit 18,440 +106.1% Mission Impossible 4 24,390 +55.8% Not a bad start for Batman v Superman. The interest is there at least.

Thursday pre-sales for the expected top 3 at Palace APM Palace APM Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 3D Zootopia (all v.) Kung Fu Panda 3 (all v.) Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Mar. 24 12:05 AM 40 286 13.99% Feb. 9 9:15 AM 37 112 33.04% Feb. 9 9:10 AM 29 167 17.37% 9:20 AM 9 114 7.89% 11:20 AM 27 112 24.11% 10:50 AM 22 98 22.45% 10:30 AM 106 286 37.06% 1:40 PM 6 98 6.12% 1:20 PM 7 112 6.25% 11:05 AM 40 167 23.95% 3:10 PM 37 112 33.04% 3:45 PM 7 98 7.14% 12:10 PM 4 114 3.51% 5:45 PM 20 114 17.54% 5:15 PM 12 112 10.71% 1:20 PM 47 286 16.43% 7:30 PM 44 98 44.90% 8:10 PM 23 98 23.47% 1:50 PM 7 167 4.19% 2:30 PM 6 98 6.12% 3:00 PM 8 114 7.02% 4:10 PM 58 286 20.28% 4:40 PM 10 167 5.99% 5:20 PM 9 98 9.18% 7:30 PM 61 167 36.53% 7:50 PM 57 114 50.00% 9:50 PM 188 286 65.73% 10:00 PM 17 112 15.18% 10:20 PM 14 167 8.38% 10:40 PM 7 114 6.14% 11:55 PM 6 98 6.12% Total 694 3241 21.41% Total 171 646 26.47% Total 100 685 14.60% Batman v Superman is doing slightly better than Star Wars 7 at the same point in time, however, Batman has a much bigger advantage in terms of pricing at regular theaters which will play a major factor this weekend. Zootopia is doing OK so far while Kung Fu Panda 3 looks lethargic. Obviously being in your 2nd week will hurt pre-sales but only the morning shows are comparable to Zootopia's and even those are running behind it.

Yeah and that is on the China distributor for changing the release date. If they had let it run on December 31, Ip Man 3 wouldn't have been overshadowed by Zootopia and it would have enjoyed a nice run ending by Chinese New Year. It's really stupid that they created false box office receipts for Ip Man 3 too. It was always going to make money. They should have quietly inflated it if they wanted to money launder. Maybe do it at more popular times like at 9 pm not 3 am lol.

That's not my point. I believe you're severely underestimating the holidays + huge anticipation. Superhero movies aren't known as being leggy films. They have higher opening weekends and weaker holds especially in Asia. Easter holidays only exacerbate BvS's multiplier with a higher opening weekend and weaker holds. That's not to say that BvS can't pull off a stronger multiplier but the conditions aren't ripe for it. Holidays on opening weekend, superhero film, highly praised original animated film, mixed word of mouth from Man of Steel, all of those reasons are a strike against BvS being able to deliver a respectable multiplier.

No I didn't see that. Thanks...so Ip Man 3 will lose only $32m yuan. Phew.

Um, Olive has a point. BvS is a highly anticipated movie plus holidays (in most territories) will severely deflate the multiplier. Do you really think that once the holidays are over, people will flock to see a superhero film (either again or new)? Unless if this movie is really well received, I can see people going back to Zootopia after the rush is done.

Sunday March 20 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 14,212 28,590 +101.2% +10.5% 2 Zootopia -- 16,035 -- +15.7% 3 London Has Fallen 9,305 5,055 -45.7% -18.8% 4 Allegiant 8,892 4,564 -48.7% -9.0% 5 Gods of Egypt 8,235 4,111 -50.1% -3.0% 6 The Danish Girl 7,423 2,911 -60.8% -25.2% 7 The Tag-Along -- 2,699 -- -16.9% 8 Room 3,588 2,615 -27.1% -14.9% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 1,520 -- -6.0% 10 Spotlight 2,208 1,055 -52.2% -25.2% I expected higher for Kung Fu Panda 3. Zootopia did a good job. Awful collapse from Saturday for London Has Fallen. Allegiant held OK on Sunday. Decent hold for Gods of Egypt from Saturday. All 3 Oscar films crumbled on Sunday with Room performing the best of the 3. Weekend adm. Mar 17-20 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 24,564 74,737 +204.3% 2 Zootopia -- 29,895 -- 3 London Has Fallen 30,195 18,319 -39.3% 4 Allegiant 30,441 15,353 -49.6% 5 Gods of Egypt 27,261 13,880 -49.1% 6 The Danish Girl 25,182 11,777 -53.2% 7 The Tag-Along -- 10,916 -- 8 Room 11,882 8,718 -26.6% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 4,833 -- Zootopia extends its lead over last weekend's Kung Fu Panda 3 sneaks to 5,000. Weekend Estimates March 17 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 $1,020,000 +213.6% $1,345,000 2 Zootopia $395,000 $395,000 3 London Has Fallen $250,000 -41.9% $1,725,000 4 Gods of Egypt $195,000 -48.7% $1,580,000 5 Allegiant $175,000 -54.9% $675,000 Kung Fu Panda 3 had a lower than expected Sunday. Zootopia did slightly better than expected on Sunday.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Part 3/3 Easter series Opening: March 24 (midnight sneaks on March 23) The last of the 3 entries this Easter is also expected to be the biggest. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the mashup of the superhero world pitting superhero against superhero. Anticipation is extremely high with marketing surfacing 8 weeks out back in January. The film does have something to refer to. Man of Steel disappointed when it opened to just 2m back in late June 2013. It was following up 2 surprisingly powerful opening weekends from Now You See Me and World War Z. The mixed word of mouth did not help either as it fell at least 60% in its 2nd-5th weekend with the 83% tumble on its 3rd weekend being back-breaking. This time around, Batman will help to ensure a huge rush of tickets on opening weekend and BvS will be the tentpole release of the Easter season. There were no big surprises in the previous few weeks coming to the forefront so the stage is set for a gigantic opening weekend. Prices are sky high with regular theaters at least $20 HK more expensive than regular films and upwards of $30 HK in the most expensive theaters. IMAX is $20 less expensive than Star Wars 7 but any loss from cheaper IMAX tickets will be mitigated by higher regular theater ticket prices. For IMAX prices, this represents a new trend in HK where studios/distributors will raise ticket prices to nonsensical levels and people will still watch it regardless. Theater Movie Ticket Prices (HKD) Ticket Prices (USD) Palace IFC The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $180 $23 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice $175 $22.50 Transformers: Age of Extinction $175 $22.50 Avengers: Age of Ultron $160 $20.60 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $150 $19.30 The Avengers $135 $17.50 Maleficent (regular) $125 $16 Life of Pi $120 $15.50 Opening weekend is expected to be red hot with at least 2-3 screens allocated to the superhero flick. It might receive 1 more depending on its performance at individual theaters but 2 screens will be saved for Zootopia and Kung Fu Panda 3. Pre-sales are looking very good in 2D and 3D at almost all theaters. With really high ticket prices, this should lead to another record breaking Easter weekend with over 6m+ in gross. Opening weekend could gross at least 4.5m quieting any doubts about the Superman franchise here. 2nd weekend will still be under the influence of a holiday with a Monday holiday so Sunday will see relatively similar drops to Easter Sunday. The loss of the Thursday night into Friday holiday will hurt tremendously though. A -55% would give it another 2m weekend. By this weekend, it will have passed 7.5m. 3rd weekend there will be no holidays to prop it up and the superhero rush will be over. A -66% decline would be another $680,000. It would break through 8.5m by this weekend. 4th weekend will see some new competition unleashed but its hold will be slightly better as its weekend hold does not rely on a huge crowd anymore. A 50% hold would be $340,000. 5th weekend is empty at the moment. It should be the only weekend where Batman v Superman drops below 50%. -40% would be $205,000. 6th weekend is Captain America 3's OW. Superhero films perish at this point. A 90% collapse is another $20,000. Rest of its run could make about $50,000. Opening weekend: $4,500,000 (including previews) Total: $9,710,000 (2.16 multiplier)

Saturday adm. (so far) March 19 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 4,135 11,871 +187.1% +101.9% 2 Zootopia -- 5,535 -- -- 3 Allegiant 3,814 1,987 -47.9% +37.7% 4 London Has Fallen 3,000 1,565 -47.8% +34.3% 5 The Danish Girl 3,202 1,156 -63.9% +23.9% 6 Room 1,787 1,115 -37.6% +34.7% 7 Gods of Egypt 2,478 996 -59.8% +28.7% 8 The Tag-Along -- 737 -- +53.5% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 641 -- +74.7% 10 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 1,108 420 -62.1% +18.3% Saturday March 19 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 10,352 25,875 +150.0% +106.0% 2 Zootopia -- 13,860 -- -- 3 London Has Fallen 11,033 6,228 -43.6% +47.5% 4 Allegiant 9,778 5,018 -48.7% +44.8% 5 Gods of Egypt 9,236 4,236 -54.1% +28.1% 6 The Danish Girl 9,019 3,891 -56.9% +27.7% 7 The Tag-Along -- 3,247 -- +21.6% 8 Room 4,167 3,072 -26.3% +64.0% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 1,617 -- +66.4% 10 Spotlight 2,428 1,410 -41.9% +56.5% Strong increase for Kung Fu Panda 3. Zootopia's Saturday sneaks triumphs over last week's Kung Fu Panda 3 Saturday sneaks. Winning against KFP3's sneaks could mean that kids wanted to see it this weekend over watching it next weekend when Batman v Superman will take the most screens. London Has Fallen comes back down to the pack. The rest of the top 6 had pretty iffy holds. Sunday adm. (so far) March 20 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 6,735 16,386 +143.3% +38.0% 2 Zootopia -- 7,369 -- +33.1% 3 Allegiant 3,861 2,196 -43.1% +10.5% 4 London Has Fallen 3,362 1,691 -49.7% +8.1% 5 Gods of Egypt 2,967 1,079 -63.6% +8.3% 6 The Danish Girl 2,643 1,002 -62.1% -13.3% 7 Room 1,626 991 -39.1% -11.1% 8 The Tag-Along -- 761 -- +3.3% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 616 -- -3.9% 10 Trumbo -- 457 -- -- Great increase for Kung Fu Panda 3. Not as great as Kung Fu Panda 3's Sunday increase with sneaks last week for Zootopia's Sunday pre-sales. Perhaps demand was burned off just a smidge on Saturday. Weekend Projections March 17 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 $1,050,000 +222.9% $1,375,000 2 Zootopia $388,000 $388,000 3 London Has Fallen $255,000 -40.7% $1,730,000 4 Gods of Egypt $185,000 -51.3% $1,570,000 5 Allegiant $175,000 -54.9% $675,000 Kung Fu Panda 3 comes in below Kung Fu Panda 2's OW. It's a disappointment. Chalk this one up to Dreamworks deciding to release this in March where animations don't do as well. Panda 3 should have been released on Chinese New Year. Pixar really lucked out with The Good Dinosaur there. Meanwhile, Zootopia got off to a pretty good start in sneaks. It defeated KFP3's sneaks from last weekend and is positioning itself as the #2 film of next week. This animation battle will be one to watch. London Has Fallen had a decent hold with Thursday/Friday pumping its weekend hold up. Gods of Egypt didn't too badly and passes 1.5m. Allegiant did not have a good hold and will make less than $900,000. ______________________________________________________ Some of you have already voted in my poll but if you have not, I can give a fairly brief description on why I believe each film has the potential to win this year. Batman v Superman - BvS has had insane marketing (8 weeks out) and has high prices everywhere including IMAX. While Star Wars 7 only got the mega boost from IMAX, this is getting at least a surcharge of over $20 HK in regular theaters due to its long running time. This should be the first film to overtake Deadpool barring it disappointments (which is a possibility given how Man of Steel folded like a cheap deck of cards back in 2013). Captain America 3 - This has the Marvel superhero release date. CA2 doubled CA's OW with an Easter opening. This time it will have Iron Man in it and with great feedback from the last Captain America, this has the potential to do gangbusters in 5 weeks time. I'd say this is the likeliest to win. X-Men: Apocalypse - X-Men is not as super potent like the Marvel movies but it has been a steady performer even going back to 2010 and has a good reputation in HK. X-Men can't be counted out. Independence Day 2 - Roland Emmerich has a decent track record in HK but if we only count his disaster blockbusters, his box office record is impeccable. This could challenge Captain America 3 for bragging rights if it is done right. Legs will be a severe issue with 2 potential 2m+ OW grossers in week 3 and an even bigger film released in week 4. Finding Dory - Pixar reclaims its place with the 2nd week of July slot after Minions stole it from them last year. Now that Cold War 2 is confirmed just 6 days out, one wonders if the combination of Ice Age 5 and Cold War 2 will affect Finding Dory or if Finding Dory will tower over them and gobble money as fast as possible. Finding Nemo was a huge success in HK back in 2003 and if Finding Dory turns out to be another Pixar masterpiece, this could even challenge Toy Story 3's reign as the biggest grossing animated film in HK. There is a lot of competition though so whether it is able to swim to the surface with all of those distractions remains to be seen. Cold War 2 - Now confirmed to be released on July 8, I wonder if EDKO isn't making a mistake by positioning this just one week before Finding Dory. Cold War came out to huge numbers in November 2012 and eventually defeated Skyfall's gross with 5.5m. This time though, it will have summer weekdays to help it but the release date is a little suspect. If it releases before Finding Dory, I'd say it would be a big mistake. If it has great word of mouth, this could surprise. #1 for the year is a very slim possibility but this is HK's best chance this year. Rogue One: Star Wars - Star Wars is back in town this year but last year the ridiculous IMAX prices and contracts with Star Wars 7 really inflated its 10m+ gross. Rogue One is a prequel and prequels don't really do well in HK but it does have Donnie Yen to help with marketing. One troubling development that occurred on Star Wars 7's opening weekend was when some theaters did really poor business. Many theaters did not do well and they were forced to show it on the big screens for 3 weeks. I think some theaters will think long and hard before they sign their screens away again after what happened last December. Even with those negative signs, Rogue One can still pull off the win and if theaters increase prices again, it's possible that with weaker competition, it could pull off a victory.

I know IM3's image was tarnished because of the box office scandal but for me, even if its box office is 30% fake, it still set out what it needed to do which was double its budget with China alone. It will still make a profit and for that I'm happy. We can argue over whether its release date brought down its box office or the fudging but at least a quality movie will be a profitable film for the studio at the end of the day.

Weekly Gross (Mon-Sun) Mar 7-13 LW TW Title Last Week (HKD) This Week (HKD) Days in release % chg Total (HKD) This Week (USD) Total (USD) 1 1 London Has Fallen $5,430,195 $5,033,160 11 -7.3% $10,463,355 $648,976 $1,349,145 2 2 Gods of Egypt $5,415,194 $4,437,682 11 -18.1% $9,852,876 $572,195 $1,270,430 3 3 The Danish Girl $5,148,249 $3,224,180 18 -37.4% $11,678,510 $415,726 $1,505,827 -- 4 Allegiant -- $3,008,796 4 -- $3,008,796 $387,954 $387,954 -- 5 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- $2,522,147 0 -- $2,522,147 $325,205 $325,205 7 6 Room $1,261,344 $1,555,700 11 +23.3% $2,817,044 $200,592 $363,229 -- 7 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- $1,410,242 4 -- $1,410,242 $181,836 $181,836 4 8 Mermaid $3,555,288 $1,360,610 35 -61.7% $55,553,787 $175,437 $7,163,109 8 9 Spotlight $1,070,767 $865,819 25 -19.1% $3,239,945 $111,638 $417,758 6 10 Deadpool $2,758,417 $782,632 34 -71.6% $57,720,580 $100,912 $7,442,495 London Has Fallen beats Olympus Has Fallen. Gods of Egypt's HK gross is already 11th best overseas. It should break into GoE's top 10 territories overseas next week. The Danish Girl surpasses The King's Speech and HK's TDG gross beats France and Brazil's TDG grosses. It is gunning for Australia's TDG gross next. Allegiant is confirmed as having the weakest OW of the Divergent series. OK sneaks for KFP3. Room held very nicely. Awful start for P&P&Z. The Mermaid is looking at 57m HK final gross while Deadpool might be able to sneak past Inception's 58.3m HK gross before theaters likely cut all showtimes on Easter weekend. Spotlight is holding pretty well. Thursday Actuals March 17 LW TW Movie Last Thu. (USD) Thu. (USD) % chg Theaters Days Total -- 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- $103,152 -- 42 1 $425,502 2 2 London Has Fallen $60,087 $38,682 -35.6% 40 15 $1,515,045 3 3 Gods of Egypt $59,235 $33,524 -43.4% 36 15 $1,418,340 1 4 Allegiant $64,726 $27,077 -58.2% 36 8 $528,654 -- 5 The Tag-Along -- $25,788 -- 24 1 $38,682 5 6 The Danish Girl $37,702 $21,919 -41.9% 21 22 $1,577,139 6 7 Room $19,288 $14,183 -26.5% 19 15 $436,591 4 8 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies $38,577 $10,315 -73.3% 26 8 $243,567 -- 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- $7,865 -- 9 1 $7,865 10 10 Spotlight $9,318 $5,286 -43.3% 8 29 $441,547 It's an OK start for Kung Fu Panda 3 with previews deflating its opening day gross and the overall suppressed non-holiday weekdays. Good hold for London Has Fallen. OK hold for Gods of Egypt. Terrible hold for Allegiant. The Tag-Along did alright. Friday March 18 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 12,560 -- +62.9% 2 London Has Fallen 5,897 4,222 -28.4% +50.0% 3 Allegiant 6,770 3,466 -48.8% +50.4% 4 Gods of Egypt 5,913 3,308 -44.1% +43.9% 5 The Danish Girl 5,376 3,046 -43.3% +57.9% 6 The Tag-Along -- 2,671 -- +16.2% 7 Room 2,592 1,873 -27.7% +61.7% 8 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 3,255 1,228 -62.3% +38.8% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 972 -- +34.3% 10 Spotlight 1,517 901 -40.6% -- Huge increase for Kung Fu Panda 3. Word of mouth is really setting in. Very good hold for London Has Fallen.

Thursday March 17 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 7,712 -- 2 London Has Fallen 3,960 2,814 -28.9% 3 Allegiant 5,001 2,305 -53.9% 4 The Tag-Along -- 2,299 -- 5 Gods of Egypt 3,877 2,225 -42.6% 6 The Danish Girl 3,364 1,929 -42.7% 7 Room 1,535 1,158 -24.6% 8 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 2,922 885 -69.7% 9 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 724 -- 10 Youth -- 574 -- Admissions are very low for Kung Fu Panda 3 and I'd venture for almost all films in the top 10. Is something weird going on with the admissions site? We'll probably have to wait until Thursday numbers come in to get a sense of how Kung Fu Panda 3 actually did. Right now, it's a bad start for Panda 3 and an excellent hold for London. Bad for Allegiant. Decent start for The Tag-Along. Ok holds for Gods of Egypt and The Danish Girl. Opening day reviews for Kung Fu Panda 3 are superb with a 4.6/5 rating. Friday adm. (so far) March 18 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 5,879 -- +90.1% 2 Allegiant 2,653 1,443 -45.6% +47.1% 3 London Has Fallen 1,794 1,165 -35.1% +61.8% 4 The Danish Girl 2,281 933 -59.1% +62.0% 5 Room 1,105 828 -25.1% +103.9% 6 Gods of Egypt 1,733 774 -55.3% +60.6% 7 The Tag-Along -- 480 -- +25.0% 8 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 367 -- +7.3% 9 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 780 355 -54.5% +54.3% 10 Spotlight 690 310 -55.1% -- Kung Fu Panda looks better but still low. It should be around 10,000 admissions.

Thursday adm. (so far) March 17 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 3,092 -- 2 Allegiant 2,078 981 -52.8% 3 London Has Fallen 904 720 -20.4% 4 The Danish Girl 1,266 576 -54.5% 5 Gods of Egypt 1,314 482 -63.3% 6 Room 562 406 -27.8% 7 The Tag-Along -- 384 -- 8 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle -- 342 -- 9 Youth -- 262 -- 10 Trumbo -- 230 -- 10 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 575 230 -60.0% Hmm, I'm not going to call it a disaster for Kung Fu Panda 3 yet but these admissions are worrisome. Kung Fu Panda 2 began with almost 23,000 admissions from opening day pre-sales in the summer but Kung Fu Panda 3's opening day pre-sales are deflated thanks to sneaks from last week and slow opening day pre-sales for animation films not on a holiday or on summer/Christmas/Chinese New Year/Easter break. I stress that if Kung Fu Panda 3 does not pick up in sales this weekend, it does not mean much for Zootopia's chances. The big elephant in the room is still Batman v Superman in which theaters have already rolled out advanced pre-selling for next week at many locations. Obviously, theaters are trying to gauge how much interest there is for Batman v Superman. Allegiant, The Danish Girl and Gods of Egypt saw pretty bad holds. London Has Fallen, Room had great holds.

Zootopia - Part 2/3 Easter series Opening: March 24 (sneaks beginning on March 19) Disney's latest animation foray is coming into HK red hot with huge critical acclaim and robust box office takings in a number of territories. Zootopia, the latest in Disney's arsenal of animation films sports a very different world from past Disney animation films. Recent Disney films such as Tangled, Big Hero 6 and Frozen are all set in a humanistic world while Zootopia goes the way of Madagascar and Ice Age into their own talking animal world. It's in this animal world where that gives it a slight edge here in Hong Kong. The film emphasizes the big-small effect with more intensity than past films and this will be one of the main reasons why Zootopia will be such a success in Hong Kong but there is also a major roadblock on its opening weekend: Batman v Superman. Batman v Superman will likely debut on 3 screens and it also has IMAX so Zootopia has to make its money the old fashioned way. In addition, Zootopia still has to compete with Kung Fu Panda 3's 2nd weekend where it will also tussle for screens and families attention. The question is where Zootopia will end up in all of this? If I had to guess, theater operators will gravitate to the more likelier choice to make money so I believe they will devote the 2nd or 3rd biggest screen to Kung Fu Panda 3 first, however, I believe that once word of mouth sets in, Zootopia will make a giant push for that 2nd or 3rd screen. Where Zootopia is scheduled will be extremely important and there are several factors to consider such as how confident theater operators are in Batman v Superman after Man of Steel disappointed in 2013, whether theater operators will take a gamble with their 2nd or 3rd biggest screen on an original property as opposed to a sequel and how well it does with sneaks on Kung Fu Panda 3's opening weekend. This might be the reason why it is getting sneaks...if the outstanding word of mouth seeps in from the previews, there will be a huge battle on Easter weekend. Theater operators though are pretty predictable so I see Batman v Superman with 3 screens, Kung Fu Panda 3 with 1 screen and Zootopia with the other. If a theater has 6 screens, I could see them splitting the last screen on a holdover along with one of Kung Fu Panda 3 or Zootopia. On opening weekend, Zootopia could take in about 1.2m including sneaks. On Zootopia's 2nd weekend, the holidays will be over but there will be no major openers out and by then strong word of mouth will have kicked in. A -30% drop would leave it with $840,000 for its 2nd weekend. 3rd weekend should only see Huntsmen: Winter's War only make a play for screens. I could see the top 3 from Easter weekend still be the top 3 on the April 7 weekend and for Zootopia, it should be another great week with no direct competition. A -10% decline is another $750,000 and after the superhero rush is over, this is the most likely weekend for Zootopia to claim #1. By this end of Zootopia's 3rd week, it will have passed 4m. 4th weekend it should start to see bigger drops with some films competing for screens. Another 30% fall will see it hop away with $525,000. 5th weekend does not have much out. It could ease 20% for another $420,000. 6th weekend is Captain America: Civil War's opening weekend so it means the end of the road for Zootopia. An 85% drowning would mean only $63,000 for the weekend. Rest of its run could make about $50,000. Opening weekend: $1,200,000 (including previews) Total: $5,450,000 (4.54 multiplier)

Jungle Book does not open here until May 26. The release date signifies it won't be a big animation film plus Angry Birds movie opens one week after (June 2). Zootopia will make much more than 2.5m but I doubt it surpasses KFP3. Piracy does not mean much in HK. Harry Potter 7-1 was released a month after everywhere else and it was the #3 film of 2010. Sunday March 13 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 14,212 -- +37.3% 2 London Has Fallen 16,052 9,305 -42.0% -15.7% 3 Allegiant -- 8,892 -- -9.1% 4 Gods of Egypt 16,531 8,235 -50.2% -10.8% 5 The Danish Girl 12,070 7,423 -38.5% -17.7% 6 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 4,204 -- -7.1% 7 Room 5,055 3,588 -29.0% -13.9% 8 The Mermaid 7,852 2,662 -66.1% +7.3% 9 Spotlight 2,965 2,208 -25.5% -9.1% 10 Hail, Caesar! -- 1,826 -- -18.6% Pretty big Sunday drops for almost everything. Kung Fu Panda 3 was the only standout. Weekend adm. Mar 10-13 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Allegiant -- 30,441 -- 2 London Has Fallen 51,968 30,195 -41.9% 3 Gods of Egypt 52,983 27,261 -48.5% 4 The Danish Girl 41,587 25,182 -39.4% 5 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 24,564 -- 6 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 14,908 -- 7 Room 15,285 11,882 -22.3% 8 The Mermaid 23,028 7,850 -65.9% 9 Spotlight 9,646 7,056 -26.9% 10 Hail, Caesar! -- 6,699 -- Weekend Estimates March 10 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 London Has Fallen $430,000 -38.8% $1,345,000 2 Gods of Egypt $380,000 -45.8% $1,325,000 3 Allegiant $365,000 $365,000 4 Kung Fu Panda 3 $310,000 $310,000 5 The Danish Girl $270,000 -40.0% $1,510,000 Some minor adjustments for most films here with Sunday's admissions coming in.

Saturday March 12 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 London Has Fallen 17,937 11,033 -38.5% +87.1% 2 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 10,352 -- -- 3 Allegiant -- 9,778 -- +44.4% 4 Gods of Egypt 18,614 9,236 -50.4% +56.2% 5 The Danish Girl 15,008 9,019 -39.9% +67.8% 6 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 4,527 -- +39.1% 7 Room 5,214 4,167 -20.1% +60.8% 8 The Mermaid 7,842 2,481 -68.4% +51.1% 9 Spotlight 3,192 2,428 -23.9% +60.1% 10 Hail, Caesar! -- 2,242 -- +44.6% Good hold for London Has Fallen. Disappointing sneak previews for Kung Fu Panda 3. With Zootopia getting sneak peeks next weekend, this is not good news. Poor increase for Allegiant. Average hold for Gods of Egypt. Good hold for The Danish Girl. Awful increase for Pride. Excellent hold for Room. Sunday adm. (so far) March 13 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 6,735 -- +62.9% 2 Allegiant -- 3,861 -- +1.2% 3 London Has Fallen 6,081 3,362 -44.7% +12.1% 4 Gods of Egypt 6,746 2,967 -56.0% +19.7% 5 The Danish Girl 6,783 2,643 -61.0% -17.5% 6 Room 2,695 1,626 -39.7% -9.0% 7 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 1,305 -- +17.8% 8 Spotlight 1,615 1,036 -35.9% +15.8% 9 Hail, Caesar! -- 897 -- -16.5% 10 The Mermaid 2,598 791 -69.6% -- Better for Kung Fu Panda 3 but not all that impressive. Weak for Allegiant. Solid increases for London and Gods. Ouch for The Danish Girl and Room. Weekend Projections March 10 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 London Has Fallen $450,000 -36.0% $1,375,000 2 Gods of Egypt $370,000 -47.2% $1,315,000 3 Allegiant $365,000 $365,000 4 Kung Fu Panda 3 $300,000 $300,000 5 The Danish Girl $275,000 -38.9% $1,515,000 London Has Fallen will be able to repeat at #1 with a pretty good hold. Gods of Egypt did not do horribly but the gap from London Has Fallen has been slowly growing. Allegiant is a major bomb even with supersized prices. Kung Fu Panda 3 disappointed with sneaks. It should have made more. The Danish Girl passes 1.5m. What an excellent total for this type of film.

Weekly Gross (Mon-Sun) Feb 29-Mar 6 LW TW Title Last Week (HKD) This Week (HKD) Days in release % chg Total (HKD) This Week (USD) Total (USD) -- 1 London Has Fallen -- $5,430,195 4 -- $5,430,195 $702,959 $702,959 -- 2 Gods of Egypt -- $5,415,194 4 -- $5,415,194 $701,017 $701,017 4 3 The Danish Girl $3,306,081 $5,148,249 11 +55.7% $8,454,330 $666,460 $1,094,445 2 4 Mermaid $7,785,344 $3,555,288 28 -54.3% $54,193,177 $460,245 $7,015,515 3 5 The Finest Hours $4,595,615 $3,120,995 11 -32.1% $7,716,610 $404,024 $998,944 1 6 Deadpool $7,948,620 $2,758,417 27 -65.3% $56,937,948 $357,087 $7,370,836 -- 7 Room -- $1,261,344 4 -- $1,261,344 $163,285 $163,285 RE 8 Spotlight -- $1,070,767 18 -- $2,374,126 $138,614 $307,339 5 9 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi $2,059,704 $588,144 18 -71.4% $5,474,419 $76,137 $708,684 7 10 How to Be Single $1,334,141 $464,154 18 -65.2% $4,057,467 $60,086 $525,254 Wow, interesting to see that Gods of Egypt lost to London Has Fallen this weekend since it won on Thursday and Sunday. Either way for London, its opening weekend is OK and Gods of Egypt, its opening weekend is pretty good considering the mild box office response almost everywhere else. The Danish Girl saw a huge increase thanks to the Oscar bump beginning on Monday. That means its entire week was affected by the Oscar surge and we'll see a larger drop next week. The Mermaid and Deadpool are both past 7m. Mermaid still has a little bit of life left and it is chasing Deadpool for New Year's bragging rights. Otherwise, 60m HK looks out for both films. Deadpool is almost done and The Mermaid is right behind.

Allegiant is dead in the water. Reviews are bad and there is massive competition coming up. Sigh. Thursday Actuals March 10 LW TW Movie Last Thu. (USD) Thu. (USD) % chg Theaters Days Total -- 1 Allegiant -- $64,726 -- 40 1 $64,726 2 2 London Has Fallen $109,274 $60,087 -45.0% 41 8 $983,849 1 3 Gods of Egypt $114,416 $59,235 -48.2% 40 8 $1,007,151 -- 4 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- $38,577 -- 30 1 $38,577 3 5 The Danish Girl $63,893 $37,702 -41.0% 21 15 $1,277,445 7 6 Room $25,711 $19,288 -25.0% 18 8 $258,907 -- 7 Hail, Caesar! -- $15,534 -- 12 1 $15,534 4 8 The Mermaid $42,424 $14,239 -66.4% 29 32 $7,111,689 -- 9 iGirl -- $12,945 -- 28 1 $12,945 8 10 Spotlight $12,855 $9,318 -27.5% 9 22 $349,525 Pitiful for Allegiant. Its opening day was flat from Divergent's opening day. It will finish below Divergent's opening weekend and will have the lowest opening weekend of the 3 Divergent films. London Has Fallen and Gods of Egypt saw OK holds. London Has Fallen will pass Olympus Has Fallen's total by next week. Bad for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The clash between the two did not serve the HK market well. The Danish Girl held nicely. It will pass The King's Speech by this weekend. Great hold for Room. HK will enter Room's top 10 biggest overseas markets this weekend. Decent start for Hail, Caesar! The Mermaid will miss out on the top 3 local films now. Kung Fu Panda 3 will hold sneaks this weekend which will suppress The Mermaid's weekend climb. Friday adm. (so far) March 11 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Allegiant -- 2,653 -- +27.7% 2 The Danish Girl 4,970 2,281 -54.1% +80.2% 3 London Has Fallen 2,988 1,794 -40.0% +41.7% 4 Gods of Egypt 3,476 1,733 -50.1% +31.9% 5 Room 1,428 1,105 -22.6% +96.6% 6 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 780 -- +35.7% 7 Hail, Caesar! -- 692 -- +52.1% 8 Spotlight 1,140 690 -39.5% +131.5% 9 iGirl -- 352 -- -20.7% 10 Brooklyn -- 297 -- +39.4% Friday March 11 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Allegiant -- 6,770 -- +35.4% 2 Gods of Egypt 10,485 5,913 -43.6% +52.5% 3 London Has Fallen 10,478 5,897 -43.7% +48.9% 4 The Danish Girl 8,854 5,376 -39.3% +59.8% 5 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 3,255 -- +11.4% 6 Room 2,902 2,592 -10.7% +68.9% 7 The Mermaid 4,272 1,642 -61.6% +54.2% 8 Hail, Caesar! -- 1,551 -- +43.6% 9 Spotlight 2,190 1,517 -30.7% +68.0% 10 iGirl -- 792 -- -24.4% Not good for Allegiant. Decent climbs for Gods of Egypt, London Has Fallen. Good increase for The Danish Girl. Terrible for Pride. Very good increase and hold for Room. Saturday adm. (so far) March 12 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Kung Fu Panda 3 -- 4,135 -- -- 2 Allegiant -- 3,814 -- +43.8% 3 The Danish Girl 7,794 3,202 -58.9% +40.4% 4 London Has Fallen 5,185 3,000 -42.1% +67.2% 5 Gods of Egypt 6,277 2,478 -60.5% +43.0% 6 Room 2,300 1,787 -22.3% +61.7% 7 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 1,108 -- +42.1% 8 Hail, Caesar! -- 1,074 -- +55.2% 9 Spotlight 1,584 895 -43.5% +29.7% 10 iGirl -- 612 -- +73.9% Not a bad start to Kung Fu Panda 3's sneaks. Pre-sales admissions will be slightly lower than sneak previews on summer films but walk-ins should be a little better. I expect about 15,000 admissions today. Kung Fu Panda 3 affected a ton of films today. Gods of Egypt, The Danish Girl and Allegiant all performed worse than normal. London Has Fallen had a staunch increase. Great hold for Room. It was one of a handful of films that was unaffected by KFP3.

Kung Fu Panda 3 - Part 1/3 Easter series Opening: March 17 (sneaks March 12-13) Opening nearly 2 months after N.America and China, Kung Fu Panda 3 heads into HK one week ahead of the Easter holidays. This will be the first film in the series that does not open during the summer period and is looking at the Easter holidays to bolster its legs. The problem that Kung Fu Panda 3 has is exactly the same problem that Kung Fu Panda 2 had but in reverse. Kung Fu Panda 2 opened in July one week after Harry Potter 7-2 and 3 weeks after Transformers 3 but by then a whopping 15m was spread between the 2 films before Kung Fu Panda 2 even opened. It opened to formidable 2nd week competition from Harry Potter 7-2 and nearly lost, thereby suppressing its opening weekend and it never really recovered with its legs from the two blockbusters that preceded it. Kung Fu Panda 3 will hightail into theaters officially next week but it will launch with sneak previews this weekend. Sneak previews this weekend is an excellent idea that will help to alleviate some of the problems that will come with its legs. Opening weekend will play very well as its the only mainstream release and it will be the first major kid film since Chinese New Year. Reviews are strong and the early word of mouth from previews this weekend will roll over into opening weekend. Opening weekend including previews could see it bounce to 2.3m total. Its 2nd weekend, Easter weekend, is the major problem for Kung Fu Panda 3. While Kung Fu Panda 2 had competition preceding it that affected its box office, Kung Fu Panda 3 will face intense competition head on with a huge Hollywood superhero film and one of the hottest films out right now. Batman v Superman and Zootopia will make their entrances on Easter weekend and it is shaping up to be one of the strongest Easter weekends on record. Easter weekend has always been a mid-tier holiday weekend unlike Chinese New Year or Christmas where recent 4-day weekends eclipse 6-7m total in business. This year, however, is poised to become the strongest weekend on record with the top 3 all commanding big business. In recent years, Easter weekend has grown from 3m total for all films in the early part of this decade to 4m total in 2013 and 5m total for all films last year. This year, we could see the top 3 come in with more than 6m alone. For Kung Fu Panda 3, the concern stems from 2 problems. How much will Batman v Superman take away but maybe more importantly, will viewers flock to Zootopia instead? Batman v Superman will be the runaway #1 winner of the weekend obviously but will it do so well that theaters put it on a 4th screen and in the process cut down on Kung Fu Panda 3's 2nd weekend gross? As for Zootopia, HK has a mixed history in the past with talking animal films. The Lion King made $15,819,203, ranked #20 for the year back in 1994 while more recent talking animation films like the Ice Age series enjoys good word of mouth and is a worthy competitor at the box office and the Madagascar series is not far behind. If we're talking about who has the edge between the two films, it's definitely Kung Fu Panda 3. Still, the boisterous praise for the Zootopia film is a big concern and with Batman v Superman out, they both will have to rely on legs to survive. 2nd weekend should see it come in with a decent 1m (-57%). The weekend after, only a local film, The Bodyguard will open but the loss of the holidays will hurt. Sunday will be inflated again with Monday being a holiday. 3rd weekend could see it scarf down another $450,000 (-55%). By then, it will have surpassed Kung Fu Panda 2's total. 4th weekend sees the Huntsmen: Winter's War released and by then, I think we'll start to see some theaters push Kung Fu Panda 3 away. With no holidays inflating its previous weekend, 4th weekend should see it relax a bit and it could rope in another $300,000 (-33%) added to Kung Fu Panda 3's total. Rest of its run should take in about $450,000. Opening weekend - $2,300,000 (including previews) Total - $6,400,000 (2.78 multiplier) Thursday March 10 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Allegiant -- 5,001 -- 2 London Has Fallen 7,501 3,960 -47.2% 3 Gods of Egypt 7,353 3,877 -47.3% 4 The Danish Girl 5,655 3,364 -40.5% 5 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 2,922 -- 6 Room 2,114 1,535 -27.4% 7 Hail, Caesar! -- 1,080 -- 8 The Mermaid 3,062 1,065 -65.2% 9 iGirl -- 1,048 -- 10 Spotlight 1,299 903 -30.5% Poor for Allegiant. It will be the lowest opening weekend of the 3 in the Divergent series. Meh for London Has Fallen/Gods of Egypt considering how weak the openers did this week. OK for The Danish Girl. Terrible for Pride. Nice for Room.

Thursday adm. (so far) March 10 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Allegiant -- 2,078 -- 2 Gods of Egypt -- 1,314 -- 3 The Danish Girl -- 1,266 -- 4 London Has Fallen -- 904 -- 5 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- 575 -- 6 Room -- 562 -- 7 Hail, Caesar! -- 455 -- 8 iGirl -- 444 -- 9 Spotlight -- 298 -- 10 Brooklyn -- 213 -- Nothing outstanding for any film. Allegiant's opening day pre-sales are meh. It comes down to how many people will walk up and see the film but I don't see a whole lot of interest. Gods of Egypt, The Danish Girl and London Has Fallen all had pretty steep falls despite weak openers. Bombs away for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Room had a mediocre hold.

Gods of Egypt was #1 in Malaysia with 1m. I'd say that's a darn good opening weekend. The real surprise actually came from The Philippines where Gods of Egypt turned in a great performance: 1.7m but it was #2 behind Zoolander 2's 2.4m. I'm kind of shocked that Philippines went out in droves to see the movie when it was a flop almost everywhere else. I'm not so sure about that. There's a reason why no major animation is ever released outside of a holiday period (CNY, Easter, Summer holidays, Christmas). It's why we get stuck with the animation season of 2013...remember that? May 31, 2013 - Thomas & Friends: The Blue Mountain Mystery June 6 - The Garden of Words [June 20 - Ernest & Celestine June 27 - Epic July 4 - Despicable Me 2 July 11 - Monsters University July 18 - Turbo July 25 - Yearly Doraemon release August 1 - The Smurfs 2 August 8 - The Suicide Shop] August 22 - Planes 8 animation releases in 8 consecutive weeks. 11 animation releases in 13 weeks total. Even then anything outside the last weekend of June and the 2nd last weekend of August is considered as 'outside the norm' for a summer animation release. It's also why this season is going to be crowded. Angry Birds - June 2 The Secret Life of Pets - either June 30 or July 21, not confirmed Ice Age 5 - July 7 Finding Dory - July 14 Yearly Doraemon release - last weekend of July or first weekend of August Angry Birds is going off script by debuting in June but it will have played 2-3 weeks almost everywhere before it gets to HK and the weekend after is very crowded with 3 films: Now You See Me 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and Warcraft. It has a holiday on Thursday June 9 (Dragon Boat Festival) but it will still be an animation film that has a public holiday within 2 weeks of release. Even when you look at The Good Dinosaur after the holidays the last few weeks, if you look at the daily admissions, it starts off very poor on Thursday/Friday but weekend shoots up 150-300% on Saturday and then another 30-60% on Sunday. Zootopia would likely do the same % increase and it is an original film with no sequel status to its name. Sunday March 6 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Gods of Egypt -- 16,531 -- -11.2% 2 London Has Fallen -- 16,052 -- -10.5% 3 The Danish Girl 14,939 12,070 -19.2% -19.6% 4 The Mermaid 20,230 7,852 -61.2% +0.1% 5 The Finest Hours 18,899 7,257 -61.6% -6.7% 6 Room -- 5,055 -- -3.0% 7 Deadpool 14,867 4,506 -69.7% -11.3% 8 Spotlight -- 2,965 -- -7.1% 9 The Good Dinosaur 3,462 1,290 -62.7% -- 10 How to Be Single 2,021 910 -55.0% +1.1% The top 3 all had very steep drops on Sunday which affected their projections. Gods of Egypt officially won on Sunday over London Has Fallen. Weekend adm. Mar 3-6 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Gods of Egypt -- 52,983 -- 2 London Has Fallen -- 51,968 -- 3 The Danish Girl 42,265 41,587 -1.6% 4 The Finest Hours 63,284 24,268 -61.7% 5 The Mermaid 59,935 23,028 -61.6% 6 Room -- 15,285 -- 7 Deadpool 52,571 14,756 -71.9% 8 Spotlight RE 9,646 -- How to Be Single 7,787 2,929 -62.4% Weekend Estimates March 3 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 Gods of Egypt $780,000 $780,000 2 London Has Fallen $725,000 $725,000 3 The Danish Girl $470,000 +11.0% $1,115,000 4 The Mermaid $320,000 -51.4% $7,000,000 5 Deadpool $220,000 -65.0% $7,335,000 The top 3 all lost more than $10,000 from projections due to weaker than expected Sunday holds. Actuals Ip Man 3 - $7,756,561 Deadpool - $7,327,983 The Mermaid - $6,974,547 Ip Man 3's run officially ended on Wednesday however, it did gain a few extra thousand from Mon-Wed. Deadpool is closing in on Inception/The Dark Knight while The Mermaid will have to wait until Monday to officially pass 7m.