Bluebomb

I think 3m is way too low. I expect it to make 3.5m. 4m might be a stretch with The Midnight After targeting its screens its 2nd weekend but Captain America 2's total will largely depend on word of mouth. We're already starting to see the effects of the first one's mediocre WOM with Captain America 2. Captain America 2 - Opening day pre-sales at Palace APM Palace APM Captain America 2 3D Captain America 2 Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Apr. 3 11:25 AM 109 286 38.11% Apr. 3 12:10 PM 51 114 44.74% 2:00 PM 24 286 8.39% 2:40 PM 30 114 26.32% 3:00 PM 46 112 41.07% 5:10 PM 34 114 29.82% 4:35 PM 32 286 11.19% 7:40 PM 92 114 80.70% 5:30 PM 13 112 11.61% 7:10 PM 141 286 49.30% 8:00 PM 50 112 44.64% 9:45 PM 96 286 33.57% 10:15 PM 13 114 11.40% 12:15 AM 43 286 15.03% Total 567 2166 26.18% Total 207 456 45.39% Captain America 2 has fallen off The Amazing Spider-Man's pace with less than 12 hours to go. Thursday adm. (so far) April 3 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 Captain America: The Winter Soldier -- 13,794 -- 2 Naked Ambition -- 3,581 -- 3 Noah -- 1,057 -- 4 Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 -- 498 -- 5 Twelve Nights -- 426 -- 6 Kano -- 236 -- 7 Divergent -- 202 -- 8 Horseplay -- 197 -- 9 Non-Stop -- 171 -- 10 The Grand Budapest Hotel -- 130 -- Captain America 2 opening day pre-sales: 13,794 Captain America opening day pre-sales: 11,135* % chg: +23.9% * 3D admissions only The first Captain America really hurt the 2nd's opening day pre-sales along with the holiday. The holiday will push the admissions back to Friday/Saturday/Sunday so expect huge increases the next couple of days. Decent for Naked Ambition. Noah got crushed under Captain America's weight. Not bad for Nymphomaniac: Volume 1.

Thursday Schedules Palace APM New Holdovers Leaving Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D - 10 showings Noah - 4 showings (▲ 3) 3AM Part 2 Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 4 showings Horseplay - 1 showing (▼ 5) Noah 3D Naked Ambition 3D - 6 showings Kano - 1 showing (▼ 3) Divergent Naked Ambition - 4 showings Black Comedy - 1 showing (▼ 6) Need for Speed A Tale of Samurai Cooking: A True Love Story - 5 showings Non-Stop - 1 showing (▼ 5) 12 Years A Slave Cityplaza New Holdovers Leaving Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D - 10 showings Noah 3D - 1 showing (▼ 5) Horseplay Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 2 showings Noah - 2 showings (=) The Grand Budapest Hotel Naked Ambition 3D - 4 showings Divergent - 1 showing (▼ 4) Beijing Love Story Naked Ambition - 2 showings Non-Stop - 1 showing (▼ 4) Her Twelve Nights - 4 showings Langham Place New Holdovers Leaving Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3D - 16 showings Noah 3D - 2 showings (▼ 6) 3AM Part 2 Naked Ambition 3D - 10 showings Divergent - 2 showings (▼ 5) 3 Days to Kill Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 - 3 showings Kano - 1 showing (▼ 3) Horseplay Black Comedy Noah Non-Stop So Captain America 2 gets 3 screens total. It's not bad but I doubt it will gain more screens this weekend. Right now it is occupying the biggest or 2nd biggest theaters then a middle screen (3rd biggest screen) then another small screen (2nd smallest or smallest theater). The best it can hope for is to snatch away the biggest or the 2nd biggest screen from Naked Ambition, therefore owning the 2 biggest theaters on Saturday and Sunday. Naked Ambition isn't doing too shabby despite the Cat. III rating and going up against a Hollywood blockbuster. It is enjoying 1 screen at almost all locations and in some cases, theaters have given it an additional screen at night. Pre-sales Let's check in on Captain America 2 as it enters the HK market on Thursday. Palace APM Captain America 2 3D Captain America 2 Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Apr. 3 11:25 AM 61 286 21.33% Apr. 3 12:10 PM 24 114 21.05% 2:00 PM 16 286 5.59% 2:40 PM 6 114 5.26% 3:00 PM 46 112 41.07% 5:10 PM 14 114 12.28% 4:35 PM 30 286 10.49% 7:40 PM 52 114 45.61% 5:30 PM 9 112 8.04% 7:10 PM 116 286 40.56% 8:00 PM 16 112 14.29% 9:45 PM 81 286 28.32% 10:15 PM 4 114 3.51% 12:15 AM 29 286 10.14% Total 408 2166 18.84% Total 96 456 21.05% Pre-sales aren't good. It's on the same level as The Amazing Spider-Man's pre-sales 2 days out with much less screens. Back then, The Amazing Spider-Man had the whole marketplace to itself while Captain America 2 has to contend with Naked Ambition 3D this week. Although Naked Ambition caters to an entirely different audience, it is still garnering attention and theaters will support this even with huge ticket sales from Captain America 2. Looking further ahead to next week, The Midnight After is off to a great start at Langham Place. Langham Place The Midnight After Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Apr. 10 7:40 PM 156 202 77.23% 9:40 PM 141 191 73.82% Total 297 393 75.57% Apr. 11 7:40 PM 141 202 69.80% 9:40 PM 145 191 75.92% Total 286 393 72.77% 2-day total 583 786 74.17% Excellent numbers all around. Very strong numbers for the 9 PM showings. Opening day will be slightly inflated due to the high interest but the slim Friday dip is nothing to worry about at this point.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier heads to theaters this Thursday but so far ticket sales have been underwhelming. 3D sales at most locations are not even half full yet 3-4 days out in the biggest theaters. Some theaters have even had pre-sales out for almost 2 weeks so this is not good news. Then again, The Amazing Spider-Man had big trouble with pre-sales before cleaning up nicely with walk-ins. Still, this is the first big movie of the year and how this does in 3D could have lasting impacts on the rest of the summer fare to come.Meanwhile, local film The Midnight After releases the week after on April 10 and it is doing exceptionally well. In just one day, it has already averaged over 50% in ticket sales at Langham Place on both Thursday and Friday. Although tickets are being snapped up fast, walk-ins will be slow as many will have made up their minds to watch it or not. Interest is super high though and being a Cat. III movie makes the big pre-sales all the more remarkable.Captain America 2 is receiving nearly universal acclaim but the damage caused by the first film will fizzle any plans of a huge opening weekend here. I see it in the 1.8-1.9m range. The Saturday holiday will determine its opening weekend chances of beating Thor 2's opening weekend.Back to The Midnight After where reports are coming out that the film is not good and such but for this type of film, reviews won't matter. I think it could target a 1.5m opening but not much more than that because they still need to give Captain America 2 some screens. I think the most screens they will put The Midnight After on is 3 or maybe even 3.5 screens with it sharing with either Captain America 2 or with another holdover.This will be an interesting battle to watch. The Midnight After could end up beating Captain America 2's total if these fast pre-sales continue. Right now, I give a 60% edge to Captain America 2 due to 3D ticket prices and the holiday.

Thursday adm. (so far) January 9 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 4,453 2,507 -43.7% 2 Tom Yum Goong 2 -- 1,605 -- 3 Last Vegas -- 934 -- 4 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 1,504 932 -38.0% 5 Girl in the Sunny Place -- 766 -- 6 The Legend of Hercules -- 709 -- 7 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 779 363 -53.4% 8 Lan Kwai Fong 3 813 352 -56.7% 9 The Wind Rises 749 215 -71.3% 10 Firestorm 551 202 -63.3% Thursday January 9 LW Rank TW Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 1 As The Light Goes Out 16,245 10,519 -35.2% -- 2 Tom Yum Goong 2 -- 5,421 -- 2 3 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 7,848 4,316 -45.0% -- 4 Last Vegas -- 3,399 -- -- 5 The Legend of Hercules -- 2,819 -- -- 6 Girl in the Sunny Place -- 2,247 -- 3 7 Lan Kwai Fong 3 4,987 1,832 -63.3% 6 8 Firestorm 2,514 982 -60.9% 5 9 The Wind Rises 2,813 899 -68.0% 7 10 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 2,013 761 -62.2% Excellent hold for As The Light Goes Out. Walk-ins contributed 3/4 of Thursday's admissions. 3m is happening. Weak start from Tom Yum Goong 2. Very good hold for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 3m is moving closer to a lock. Average for Last Vegas. Poor for The Legend of Hercules. OK for Girl in the Sunny Place. Lan Kwai Fong 3 is holding softly. After last week's freefall, Firestorm reined it in somewhat this week. Not good for The Wind Rises. Decent hold for The Hobbit 2. Friday adm. (so far) January 10 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 6,662 4,293 -35.6% +71.2% 2 Last Vegas -- 1,914 -- +104.9% 3 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 3,028 1,879 -37.9% +101.6% 4 Tom Yum Goong 2 -- 1,590 -- -0.9% 5 Girl in the Sunny Place -- 1,118 -- +46.0% 6 The Legend of Hercules -- 978 -- +37.9% 7 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 931 448 -51.9% +23.4% 8 Lan Kwai Fong 3 1,010 410 -59.4% +16.5% 9 The Wind Rises 1,143 338 -70.4% +57.2% 10 Commitment 740 293 -60.4% -- Huge movement from Last Vegas. As the Light Goes Out/Walter Mitty continue to hold strongly.

HNY, Leyla! DOS might make 4m but it will depend on screen counts on Thursday. Sunday January 5 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 7,897 30,469 +285.8% -8.5% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 19,176 13,746 -28.3% -20.5% 3 Frozen 12,507 5,041 -59.7% +10.0% 4 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 4,866 -- -27.4% 5 The Wind Rises 10,910 4,543 -58.4% -7.5% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 8,042 3,424 -57.4% -11.6% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 6,950 3,397 -51.1% +16.3% 8 Firestorm 12,015 3,198 -73.4% -21.0% 9 Commitment -- 2,450 -- -17.2% 10 The White Storm 3,506 2,306 -34.2% -18.0% Very good for As The Light Goes Out. Meh Sunday decrease for Walter Mitty but great hold week to week. Frozen gets the Sunday bump. Terrible drop for Lan Kwai Fong 3. Bad decrease for The Wind Rises. Weekend adm. Jan 2-5 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out -- 99,162 -- 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 50,268 -- 3 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 22,286 -- 4 Frozen -- 15,547 -- 5 The Wind Rises -- 15,336 -- 6 Firestorm -- 13,145 -- 7 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 11,445 -- 8 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 9,606 -- 9 Commitment -- 9,019 -- 10 The White Storm -- 8,573 -- Great showing from As The Light Goes Out. Pretty good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Not good from Lan Kwai Fong 3. Maybe good reviews will help its legs. Frozen ultimately passes The Wind Rises due to Sunday bump. The Wind Rises didn't do anything to help its cause for next week. Weekend Estimates January 2 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 As The Light Goes Out $750,000 $1,525,000 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty $375,000 -71.0% $2,120,000 3 Lan Kwai Fong 3 $160,000 $560,000 4 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug $140,000 $3,880,000 5 Frozen $130,000 $2,170,000 Excellent for As The Light Goes Out. 2.5m is a lock. Huge triumph for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 3m might happen. Weak from Lan Kwai Fong 3. It did worse than the 2nd one. The Hobbit 2 is getting ever so close to 4m. It will depend on how theaters distribute their screens next week. Not terribly great for Frozen considering the success worldwide but it's still OK for a winter animated release.

a Saturday January 4 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 8,479 33,282 +292.5% -- 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 21,424 17,291 -19.3% -- 3 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 6,703 -- -- 4 The Wind Rises 10,476 4,913 -53.1% -- 5 Frozen 11,387 4,584 -59.7% -- 6 Firestorm 13,154 4,048 -69.2% -- 7 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 8,171 3,872 -52.6% -- 8 Commitment -- 2,958 -- -- 9 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 6,200 2,922 -52.9% -- 10 The White Storm 4,227 2,813 -33.5% -- Fantastic for As The Light Goes Out. Superb hold for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. OK for Lan Kwai Fong 3. Average for The Wind Rises. Weak for Frozen. Sunday adm. (so far) January 5 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 2,728 12,585 +361.3% +4.8% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 7,216 3,874 -46.3% -12.7% 3 Frozen 7,052 2,538 -64.0% +29.7% 4 The Wind Rises 6,705 2,533 -62.2% +34.0% 5 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 4,346 1,833 -57.8% -0.4% 6 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 2,995 1,722 -42.5% +32.5% 7 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 1,137 -- -13.8% 8 Commitment -- 1,049 -- -9.3% 9 Firestorm 3921 1,049 -73.2% +4.9% 10 The White Storm 992 804 -19.0% -1.6% Great for As The Light Goes Out. Good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. All the way down at #10, that is an outstanding hold for The White Storm.

Yes, The Stolen Years would have made the list at #7 and bumped out Sex Duties Unit from the top 10. Friday January 3 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out -- 19,166 -- +18.0% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 11,383 -- +45.0% 3 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 5,730 -- +14.9% 4 Firestorm -- 3,385 -- +34.6% 5 The Wind Rises -- 3,067 -- +9.0% 6 Frozen -- 2,789 -- -11.0% 7 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 2,136 -- +6.1% 8 Commitment -- 1,964 -- +19.2% 9 The White Storm -- 1,874 -- +18.6% 10 47 Ronin -- 1,722 -- +31.9% Quite good for As The Light Goes Out. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty had a nice bump. OK for Lan Kwai Fong 3. Firestorm had a good increase but it is trying to make up for the poor Thursday showing. Alright for The Wind Rises but it does manage to beat Frozen in admissions for the first time this week. Very poor for Frozen. Slow for The Hobbit 2. Good for both Commitment and The White Storm. Decent for 47 Ronin. Saturday adm. (so far) January 4 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out -- 12,004 -- +80.2% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 4,436 -- +46.5% 3 Frozen -- 1,957 -- +71.7% 4 The Wind Rises -- 1,891 -- +65.4% 5 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 1,840 -- +97.6% 6 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 1,319 -- +30.6% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 1,300 -- +102.2% 8 Commitment -- 1,156 -- +56.2% 9 Firestorm -- 1,000 -- +11.5% 10 The White Storm -- 817 -- +100.2% Incredibly strong for As the Light Goes Out. Not bad for Walter Mitty. Good bounce back for Frozen. Healthy increase for The Wind Rises. Very good for The Hobbit 2. Lan Kwai Fong 3 did alright. Great increase for Cloudy 2. OK for Commitment. Dreadful for Firestorm Superb for The White Storm.

2013 Year End Report In 2013, HK box office accumulated $1,625,331,294 HK ($209,589,590 US), +4.24% from 2012 which amassed $1,559,237,866 ($201,066,716 US). Altogether 310 films saw the light of day in HK screens which was up 3% from last year (301 films). Non-local films took a huge dive from 52 last year to 42 this year (-19.23%) but foreign films went up 7.63% from the previous year (249 to 268 this year) 2013 Top Ten Local Movies Rank Movie Total (HK$) Total (US$) 1 Unbeatable $44,631,344 $5,755,297 2 The White Storm* $30,299,024 $3,907,117 3 Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons $28,401,227 $3,662,392 4 Firestorm* $21,737,836 $2,803,135 5 The Grandmaster $21,292,885 $2,745,758 6 Out of Inferno $20,333,828 $2,622,086 7 Hotel Deluxe $19,443,275 $2,507,247 8 Rigor Mortis $17,164,014 $2,213,332 9 I Love Hong Kong 2013 $16,953,263 $2,186,155 10 SDU: Sex Duties Unit $16,747,563 $2,159,630 2013 Top Ten Foreign Movies Rank Movie Total (HK$) Total (US$) 1 Iron Man 3 $106,389,801 $13,719,169 2 Monsters University $77,407,664 $9,981,866 3 World War Z $42,602,911 $5,493,727 4 Thor: The Dark World $36,675,250 $4,729,343 5 Man of Steel $33,328,214 $4,297,737 6 Despicable Me 2 $32,603,704 $4,204,310 7 Pacific Rim $31,724,872 $4,090,983 8 A Good Day to Die Hard $28,679,709 $3,698,303 9 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug* $28,265,390 $3,644,876 10 Now You See Me $27,817,183 $3,587,079 2013 Top Ten Movies Rank Movie Total (HK$) Total (US$) 1 Iron Man 3 $106,389,801 $13,719,169 2 Monsters University $77,407,664 $9,981,866 3 Unbeatable $44,631,344 $5,755,297 4 World War Z $42,602,911 $5,493,727 5 Thor: The Dark World $36,675,250 $4,729,343 6 Man of Steel $33,328,214 $4,297,737 7 Despicable Me 2 $32,603,704 $4,204,310 8 Pacific Rim $31,724,872 $4,090,983 9 The White Storm* $30,299,024 $3,907,117 10 A Good Day to Die Hard $28,679,709 $3,698,303 * - still in release Thursday January 2 Rank Movie LW TW % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 8,245 16,245 +97.0% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 22,761 7,848 -65.5% 3 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 4,987 -- 4 Frozen 18,950 3,133 -83.5% 5 The Wind Rises 14,328 2,813 -80.4% 6 Firestorm 21,632 2,514 -88.4% 7 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 11,338 2,013 -82.2% 8 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 8,387 1,721 -79.5% 9 Commitment -- 1,647 -- 10 The White Storm 5,910 1,580 -73.3% January 2 Thursday Actuals 1. As the Light Goes Out - $128,951 (opening day actual)/$902,663 2. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - $1,805,326 Lan Kwai Fong 3 - $51,580 (opening day actual)/$451,331 Firestorm - $2,927,208 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - $3,765,396 Frozen - $2,063,230 The Wind Rises - $1,611,899 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 - $606,074 The White Storm - $3,958,823 Excellent number for As The Light Goes Out. Pretty good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It'll pass 2m by this weekend. OK for Lan Kwai Fong 3. Good total for Firestorm but Frozen made more in the past 4 days (Mon-Thu) than it and The Wind Rises nearly matched its 4 day gross. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is still clinging on to the hopes of reaching 4m but time is running out. The holidays are over and it must rely on legs from here on out. Frozen passed 2m but it's had an underwhelming run so far. The Wind Rises blew through 1.5m but 2m looks unlikely at this point. Cloudy 2 is running a little ahead of the first one. Whether or not it finishes above the first one remains to be seen. Strong for The White Storm. It will win the winter crown over all those other hyped movies. Friday adm. (so far) January 3 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out -- 6,662 -- +49.6% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 3,028 -- +101.3% 3 The Wind Rises -- 1,143 -- +52.6% 4 Frozen -- 1,140 -- -4.1% 5 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 1,010 -- +24.2% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 931 -- +19.5% 7 Firestorm -- 897 -- +62.8% 8 Commitment -- 740 -- +3.5% 9 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 643 -- +17.1% 10 47 Ronin -- 572 -- +27.4% Good for As the Light Goes Out. Impressive increase for Walter Mitty. Solid for The Wind Rises. Extremely bad for Frozen. Not that good for Lan Kwai Fong 3.

Same to you! Wednesday adm. January 1 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 22,433 23,224 +3.5% -1.3% 2 Frozen 21,790 13,107 -39.8% +33.6% 3 As The Light Goes Out 7,393 13,002 +75.9% +26.6% 4 Firestorm 34,674 10,323 -70.2% -17.6% 5 The Wind Rises 16,844 9,911 -41.2% +9.8% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 15,482 7,939 -48.7% +17.9% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 7,390 7,846 +6.2% +32.2% 8 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 6,028 -- +46.8% 9 47 Ronin 6,481 4,621 -28.7% +7.7% 10 Walking With Dinosaurs 8,003 4,222 -47.2% -- 11 The White Storm 9,538 3,888 -59.2% +3.3% Amazing for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It will strut past 2m after Sunday. OK for Frozen. It had the biggest increase of the top 11 on New Year's but the New Year's Day increase was to compensate for having the worst increase on New Year's Eve. As The Light Goes Out got more screenings today ahead of its official Thursday bow but that is an outstanding number. Downright ugly for Firestorm. Tepid reviews have effectively cut its run short in just a few days. One of the worst collapses I've ever seen in one week. Not good for The Wind Rises. It should have had a better increase than just 10%. The Hobbit had a decent gain today but week-to-week hold is quite weak. Like Frozen, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 saw a huge gain today but it was only for balancing out the weaker New Year's Eve increase. OK for Lan Kwai Fong 3. Bad for 47 Ronin. Walking With Dinosaurs is calming down from its surge earlier in the week. The White Storm is losing a lot of admissions still but it has been losing a lot of showtimes as well. Thursday adm. (so far) January 2 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 As The Light Goes Out 4,111 4,453 +8.3% -39.2% 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 12,724 1,504 -88.2% -85.1% 3 Frozen 13,106 1,189 -90.9% -84.0% 4 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 813 -- -67.0% 5 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 7,950 779 -90.2% -83.1% 6 The Wind Rises 10,784 749 -93.1% -87.2% 7 Commitment -- 715 -- -- 8 Firestorm 10,445 551 -94.7% -86.3% 9 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 6,022 549 -90.9% -88.1% 10 47 Ronin 3,942 449 -88.6% -79.2% 11 Walking With Dinosaurs 5,143 261 -94.9% -89.6% 12 The White Storm 3,802 225 -94.1% -- Very nice for As the Light Goes Out. Everything besides that, however, pretty much died after the holidays. I expected better for Lan Kwai Fong 3.

December 26 Weekend Actuals 1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - $1,289,687 (including previews) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 - $386,906 (including previews) 47 Ronin - $335,318 Holdover Totals Firestorm - $2,579,375 Frozen - $1,676,594 The Wind Rises - $1,289,687 Walking With Dinosaurs - $541,668 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - $3,482,156 The White Storm - will pass $3,869,063 on December 30 Monday adm. December 30 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 12,363 -- -35.5% 2 Frozen -- 7,695 -- -36.0% 3 As The Light Goes Out -- 6,450 -- -18.3% 4 Firestorm -- 6,265 -- -47.9% 5 The Wind Rises -- 6,139 -- -43.7% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 4,914 -- -37.8% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 4,610 -- -33.7% 8 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 2,826 -- -- 9 The White Storm -- 2,778 -- -20.8% 10 47 Ronin -- 2,710 -- -48.5% Tuesday adm. (so far) December 31 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 11,949 -- +400.0% 2 As The Light Goes Out -- 6,420 -- +382.7% 3 The Wind Rises -- 5,022 -- +108.6% 4 Frozen -- 5,020 -- +53.2% 5 Firestorm -- 4,653 -- +207.1% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 3,860 -- +65.4% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 3,042 -- +42.5% 8 The White Storm -- 2,344 -- +207.2% 9 47 Ronin -- 1,927 -- +112.5% 10 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 1,866 -- -- Tuesday adm. December 31 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 23,539 -- +90.4% 2 Firestorm -- 12,521 -- +99.9% 3 As The Light Goes Out -- 10,274 -- +59.3% 4 Frozen -- 9,812 -- +27.5% 5 The Wind Rises -- 9,029 -- +47.1% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 6,731 -- +37.0% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 5,934 -- +28.7% 8 47 Ronin -- 4,290 -- +58.3% 9 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 4,106 -- +45.3% 10 The White Storm -- 3,765 -- +35.5% Wednesday adm. (so far) January 1 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 10,070 -- -15.7% 2 Frozen -- 7,438 -- +48.2% 3 As The Light Goes Out -- 7,329 -- +14.2% 4 The Wind Rises -- 5,856 -- +16.6% 5 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 4,628 -- +52.1% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 4,596 -- +19.1% 7 Firestorm -- 4,013 -- -13.8% 8 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 2,517 -- +60.5% 9 Lan Kwai Fong 3 -- 2,465 -- +32.1% The Secret Life of Walter Mitty continues its strong first week by eclipsing its opening day Christmas admissions on New Year's Eve. It follows Les Misérables from last year which also saw its biggest admissions on New Year's Eve. Walter Mitty will have passed 1.6m after New Year's Day and should be able to grab 3m. Firestorm is really burning admissions fast. It has gone from a clear #1 on Christmas to out of the top 3 in a matter of days. As the Light Goes Out is doing great numbers. It sets up really well for its opening weekend beginning on Thursday. Frozen is doing OK but it should have done better. Having the worst increase on New Year's Eve does not help but it won't be enough to deter it from making 2m. As much as it will make 2m, that figure is a far cry from what it is doing in the rest of the world. The Wind Rises has been slightly disappointing. Reviews have not been great and there has been no holiday push the past week in admissions. This is unlikely to pass either Ponyo or Howl's Moving Castle and might not even gross 2m. The Hobbit has been looking stagnant. There has not been much in the way of increases or decreases. 4m is there for the taking but it will come down to the wire. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 did very poorly. Including previews, it still lost to Cloudy 1's OW (without previews). Granted, there was a lot of competition this year from Frozen, The Wind Rises and Walking With Dinosaurs but Sony should have noticed this and moved it to another date instead of pushing it to come out a week after the other cartoons come out. 47 Ronin did terrible numbers. No one was really interested in a Japanese mythological movie about samurais and had plenty of other action offerings this year. Combine that with the troubling delays and re-shoots and weak response from the public and it's a huge recipe for disaster. Lan Kwai Fong 3 finally moved into the top 10 after spending several days at #11 with only previews. LKF 3 will move into full release on Thursday and reviews have been excellent. The White Storm is down but certainly not out. It continues to target 4m and will be looking to end its run with the winter crown. Top 20 Surprises of 2013 I've got my list filled. Still waiting on 1 or 2 films performances before I can start counting down. What are your top 5 surprises from this year?

Walter Mitty is doing very well. It will gross at least 2.5m with a good chance of 3m. DOS will make around 4m but it'll be close. It made nearly 3m up to Christmas and should be around the 3.4m mark after Sunday. With 3 days left of money making to go, it should be around 3.6-3.7m after New Year's Day. I'm cautiously optimistic that it will crawl to 4m. Sunday adm. (so far) December 29 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 7,216 -- -- 2 Frozen -- 7,052 -- -- 3 The Wind Rises -- 6,705 -- -- 4 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 4,346 -- -- 5 Firestorm -- 3,921 -- -- 6 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 2,995 -- -- 7 As The Light Goes Out -- 2,728 -- -- 8 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 2,239 -- -- 9 47 Ronin -- 1,834 -- -- 10 The White Storm -- 992 -- -- Sunday December 29 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 19,176 -- -10.5% 2 Frozen -- 12,507 -- +9.8% 3 Firestorm -- 12,015 -- -8.7% 4 The Wind Rises -- 10,910 -- +4.1% 5 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 8,042 -- -1.6% 6 As The Light Goes Out -- 7,897 -- -6.9% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 6,950 -- +12.1% 8 47 Ronin -- 5,261 -- -7.5% 9 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 4,504 -- +24.6% 10 The White Storm -- 3,506 -- -17.1% Good for Walter Mitty. All family films saw increases on Sunday. Solid increase for Frozen. Awful for Firestorm. Decent for The Wind Rises. Pretty good for The Hobbit 2. Still nice for As The Light Goes Out. Great for Cloudy 2. Another poor showing from 47 Ronin. Awesome for Walking With Dinosaurs. Dreadful for The White Storm. Monday adm. (so far) December 30 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Frozen -- 3,277 -- -53.5% 2 The Wind Rises -- 2,408 -- -64.1% 3 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 2,390 -- -66.9% 4 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 2,334 -- -46.3% 5 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 2,135 -- -28.7% 6 Firestorm -- 1,515 -- -61.4% 7 As The Light Goes Out -- 1,330 -- -51.2% 8 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 1,082 -- -51.7% 9 47 Ronin -- 907 -- -50.5% 10 The White Storm -- 763 -- -23.1% Lethargic looking Monday. It's worthy of noting that Cloudy 2 dropped just 29% in pre-sales from Sunday. Dishonourable mention to Firestorm which continues its self-destruction, nearly getting passed by the preview showings of As The Light Goes Out.

Boxing Day Admissions Thursday adm. December 26 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 22,761 -- +1.5% 2 Firestorm -- 21,632 -- -37.6% 3 Frozen -- 18,950 -- -13.0% 4 The Wind Rises -- 14,328 -- -14.9% 5 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 11,338 -- -26.8% 6 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 8,387 -- +13.5% 7 As The Light Goes Out -- 8,245 -- +11.5% 8 47 Ronin -- 7,363 -- +13.6% 9 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 6,578 -- -17.8% 10 The White Storm -- 5,910 -- -38.0% All the Christmas Day openers increased. Very good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This is turning out to be the lone bright spot of the past 2 days. For the holdovers, it was the complete opposite, as all of them fell more than 10% from Christmas. Firestorm descended back to earth. Huge admissions loss from Christmas Day (-13,000 admissions). Not great for Frozen. It only increased by 5,800 admissions from pre-sales to final numbers. It's still better than The Wind Rises which only managed a meager 3,500 admissions from walk-ins. The Hobbit 2 blew more than a quarter in admissions from Christmas. Although falling harder than most is to be expected for The Hobbit, The Hobbit 2 nearly doubled its admissions % loss from The Hobbit on Boxing Day last year. OK for Cloudy 2. Pretty good for As The Light Goes Out. It is not getting much Broadway/AMC support at all and many theaters are giving it just 1 or 2 showtimes elsewhere so it is off to a fiery start so far. Not good for 47 Ronin. Not good for Walking With Dinosaurs. The White Storm has had its showtimes cut ever since Christmas and it has been left with very late or very early showtimes. It has taken a huge dive the past week. Compare this with the holds from last year's top 10 on December 26. Last year, 5 films scored drops below 10% and 8 films eased less than 20%. This year, all holdovers knocked off 13% or more from their Christmas Day admissions. Saturday December 28 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 21,424 -- -- 2 Firestorm -- 13,154 -- -- 3 Frozen -- 11,387 -- -- 4 The Wind Rises -- 10,476 -- -- 5 As The Light Goes Out -- 8,479 -- -- 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 8,171 -- -- 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 6,200 -- -- 8 47 Ronin -- 5,685 -- -- 9 The White Storm -- 4,227 -- -- 10 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 3,616 -- -- Strong for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Abysmal for Firestorm. It has eroded nearly 2/3 of its opening Saturday business in just 1 week. Not good for Frozen or The Wind Rises. For Frozen, the gap between itself and The Wind Rises has been shrinking since Christmas. The Wind Rises even managed to beat it in pre-sales today but it passed The Wind Rises due to having a tiny bit better walk-ins than the Japanese anime. Meanwhile, The Wind Rises has suffered due to a lack of theater support. Frozen has at least twice or almost triple the seat count of The Wind Rises but has not really pulled away from The Wind Rises its whole run. Incredible for As the Light Goes Out. Powerful sneaks so far considering the limited showtimes it has. Dec. 28 (Saturday) vs. Boxing Day 2013 Comparison Rank Movie Sat. adm. % chg from Dec. 26 1 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 21,424 -4.5% 2 Firestorm 13,154 -62.1% 3 Frozen 11,387 -47.7% 4 The Wind Rises 10,476 -37.8% 5 As The Light Goes Out 8,479 +14.7% 6 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 8,171 -47.2% 7 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 6,200 -16.1% 8 47 Ronin 5,685 -12.3% 9 The White Storm 4,227 -55.7% 10 Walking With Dinosaurs 3,616 -54.8% Quite good for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Disastrous for Firestorm. I have never seen such massive erosion before especially when the non-holiday in question is a Saturday. Frozen is just riding the holidays here. I see it dropping more than 65% next week. The Wind Rises isn't holding much better than Frozen but it could sneak out a few admission wins during the next week over Frozen. Wonderful for As The Light Goes Out.

Wednesday adm. December 25 Rank Movie LW TW WKD % chg QD % chg 1 Firestorm -- 34,674 -- -- 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- 22,433 -- -- 3 Frozen -- 21,790 -- -- 4 The Wind Rises -- 16,844 -- -- 5 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- 15,482 -- -- 6 The White Storm -- 9,538 -- -- 7 Walking With Dinosaurs -- 8,003 -- -- 8 As The Light Goes Out -- 7,393 -- -- 9 Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 -- 7,390 -- -- 10 47 Ronin -- 6,481 -- -- The top 10 is down 11% in admissions from last Christmas. Firestorm closed off Christmas 2013 with a strong afternoon session and overtook Frozen. While its performance can be considered as good, there are cracks forming in its admissions. It is off about 9% from its opening Saturday admissions which is not great. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty did fairly well. Reviews coming in are very positive...a good sign for its run over the holiday period. Frozen has had pretty good pre-sales but walk-ins are not biting for the toon. Although it did better than Wreck-It Ralph on December 23 and Christmas Eve, it lost to Ralph by more than 3,000 admissions on Christmas Day. The Wind Rises has been surprising to track. Pre-sales tell a much different story from its screen count. It was downsized by theaters this week even though its pre-sales have been pretty good. Its admissions per showing is one of the highest (if not the highest) in the top 10. The Hobbit 2 continues to fall behind Frozen and The Wind Rises as each day passes. Not good at all. The White Storm is still doing very well even with Firestorm and As The Light Goes Out directly competing for screens. Walking With Dinosaurs has somewhat recovered from its sleepy start. Good sneaks for As The Light Goes Out. OK for Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Awful for 47 Ronin. Comparison of This Year's and Last Year's Top 5 Films on Christmas Day Firestorm vs. Twilight BD2 (#1 film): -12.2% The Secret Life of Walter Mitty vs. Les Misérables (Christmas Day opener): -2.7% Frozen vs. Wreck-It Ralph (Disney cartoon): -12.4% The Wind Rises vs. CZ12: -29.2% The Hobbit 2 vs. The Hobbit: -39.4% Major ouch for The Hobbit 2. Yikes.

Firestorm is OK but The White Storm is pretty good IMO. Well worth it to watch. December 19 WeekendThe top 6 this weekend all disappointed to varying degrees this weekend as none of them really took the ball and ran away with it this weekend. Box office was down about 15-20% from the same weekend last year.Firestorm was #1 but it had very good promotion and Andy Lau is coming off a fly-by in Cold War which was one of the big surprises of 2012. Weekend increase did not see much of a bump and on Monday, it barely beat Frozen in admissions. Altogether with the 4-day weekend and previews last weekend, it has made nearly $1.16m. It'll still pass 2.5m but 3-3.5m will be its end.In 2nd, The Hobbit couldn't find its legs and dropped around 50%. It has made 2.56m in 11 days but beating An Unexpected Journey is out of the question. 4m should happen although it will be a close race.The Wind Rises took #3. While it manage to beat out the much hyped Frozen, by Hayao Miyazaki standards, it was a ho-hum performance. Even though it placed 2nd in admissions on Thursday, its screens got cut in favour of Frozen and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Admissions have faded a bit and reviews have reflected the slumping admissions on Monday. Though admissions have not exceeded expectations, it will hold very well on its 2nd weekend. So far it has made $644,000 and 2m is at least assured but for myself and even theater operators, we all were expecting more from Hayao Miyazaki's final directorial film.Frozen landed in 4th. It had very strong marketing and theaters were relying on Frozen to carry the kids crowd this weekend but it never materialized. Theaters placed this in the biggest screens in the afternoon but pre-sales were pretty weak, suggesting that many families were not interested. Including week long sneaks, it has amassed just $580,000. It is already behind Wreck-It Ralph's running total and will fall hard after the holidays are over. Pending final grosses, through the December 12/13 weekend, Hong Kong is the only territory (foreign or domestic) where Frozen did not beat Wreck It Ralph's opening weekend. Also that statistic is made worse when you compare Frozen's week-long sneaks to Wreck It Ralph's weekend previews. Frozen's previews did it a disservice as this allowed negative word of mouth to spread through to this week. Reviews are middling and I don't expect it to last very long.The White Storm was #5. It got steamrolled by Firestorm at Broadway/AMC but managed a high admissions rate per showing. In 18 days, it has already banked $3.35m and is looking ahead to 4m. I think it has enough momentum to get there.Walking With Dinosaurs checked in at #6 with only $128,000. Families were not interested in this and ignored it as they had plenty of kids movies to choose from this weekend. This is a disaster and should leave theaters in a jiffy with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 set to be fully released on Christmas.The Secret Life of Walter Mitty got an early start with previews beginning on Saturday. It did alright but it looks like it will just be another movie in the marketplace and not a big ticket item.

Thursday pre-sales at Langham Place for the expected top 6 movies Langham Place Firestorm 3D Frozen (all v.) The Wind Rises (all v.) The White Storm Walking With Dinosaurs (all v.) The Hobbit (all v.) Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Day Time Seats sold Seats available % filled Dec. 19 9:10 AM 3 202 1.49% Dec. 19 9:10 AM 2 191 1.05% Dec. 19 9:05 AM 20 180 11.11% Dec. 19 9:00 AM 3 202 1.49% Dec. 19 9:00 AM 1 180 0.56% Dec. 19 8:50 AM 5 187 2.67% 11:20 AM 4 202 1.98% 11:50 AM 3 191 1.57% 10:45 AM 5 180 2.78% 11:20 AM 4 191 2.09% 11:35 AM 4 202 1.98% 11:30 AM 10 180 5.56% 1:30 PM 9 202 4.46% 1:15 PM 2 180 1.11% 2:00 PM 44 191 23.04% 1:55 PM 12 191 6.28% 3:25 PM 9 176 5.11% 1:20 PM 4 202 1.98% 3:40 PM 11 202 5.45% 5:50 PM 12 180 6.67% 4:30 PM 37 191 19.37% 4:30 PM 12 191 6.28% 4:20 PM 18 202 8.91% 5:50 PM 22 202 10.89% 7:20 PM 124 180 68.89% 5:15 PM 14 180 7.78% 7:00 PM 44 187 23.53% 7:20 PM 26 202 12.87% 9:50 PM 69 180 38.33% 7:10 PM 63 191 32.98% 9:30 PM 24 202 11.88% 8:00 PM 63 202 31.19% 7:50 PM 113 180 62.78% 10:25 PM 15 180 8.33% 9:45 PM 32 191 16.75% 10:00 PM 35 191 18.32% 12:15 AM 0 176 0.00% 10:10 PM 26 202 12.87% 12:00 AM 0 191 0.00% 12:30 AM 0 202 0.00% 12:20 AM 7 202 3.47% 12:35 AM 0 187 0.00% Total 203 2196 9.24% Total 19 742 2.56% Total 299 1102 27.13% Total 256 1708 14.99% Total 14 558 2.51% Total 120 1718 6.98% At the busiest theater in HK, Firestorm is doing pretty bad. 3D is mainly the sole cause to blame for the sluggish sales here as other theaters are reporting very high ticket sales for the 2D version. Frozen's pre-sales are horrible. It is doing slightly better elsewhere but it's still well behind Firestorm, The White Storm and The Wind Rises in admissions. The White Storm is holding its ground at Langham Place but because of the disparity between Broadway/AMC vs. all of the other theater chains, The White Storm will have trouble dropping less than 50% this weekend. Walking with Dinosaurs is a travesty. What a disaster. Hobbit 2's pre-sales continue to be poor but its high ticket prices will ensure that Hobbit places in the top 3 this weekend. The Wind Rises is doing stellar business. It will get a screen adjustment this weekend.

It could happen but it won't. Thursday Schedules Broadway Palace APM New Holdovers Leaving Firestorm 3D - 8 showings (▲ 3) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 3D - 3 showings (▼ 5) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Firestorm - 13 showings (▲ 3) No Breathing - 1 showing (▼ 2) Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya Frozen (3D Can.) - 3 showings Oshin - 1 showing (▼ 2) Space Pirate Captain Harlock Frozen (Can.) - 2 showings The White Storm - 3 showings (▼ 8) Carrie The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 5 showings The Hunger Games: Catching Fire The Wind Rises (Can.) - 3 showings (▼ 5) Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Can.) - 2 showings Walking With Dinosaurs (Can.) - 1 showing Festival Walk New Holdovers Leaving Firestorm 3D - 6 showings (▲ 2) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 3D - 3 showings (▼ 6) No Breathing Firestorm - 11 showings (▲ 2) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - 1 showing (▼ 3) Escape Plan Frozen (3D Can.) - 2 showings (▲ 1) Free Birds (Can.) - 1 showing (▼ 2) Frozen (3D Eng.) - 3 showings (▲ 1) Oshin - 1 showing (▼ 4) Frozen (Can.) - 1 showing The White Storm - 3 showings (▼ 6) The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 4 showings (▲ 3) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 1 showing (▼ 3) The Wind Rises (Can.) - 3 showings (▲ 1) Gravity 3D - 1 showing (=) Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Can.) - 1 showing Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Eng.) - 2 showings Walking With Dinosaurs (Can.) - 1 showing UA Langham Place New Holdovers Leaving Firestorm 3D - 11 showings (▲ 5) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D HFR) - 4 showings (▼ 6) No Breathing Frozen (3D Can.) - 3 showings (▲ 2) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug 3D - 5 showings (▼ 7) Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya Frozen (Can.) - 1 showing The White Storm - 9 showings (▼ 11) The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 4 showings (▲ 3) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 1 showing (▼ 3) The Wind Rises (Can.) - 2 showings (▲ 1) Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Can.) - 2 showings Walking With Dinosaurs (Can.) - 1 showing Cine Times New Holdovers Leaving Firestorm 3D - 6 showings (▲ 2) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D Atmos) - 4 showings (▼ 6) No Breathing Firestorm - 2 showings The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (3D HFR) - 2 showings (=) The White Storm Frozen (3D Can.) - 2 showings (▼ 3) The White Storm (Atmos) - 4 showings (▲ 2) Oshin Frozen (3D Eng.) - 2 showings (▲ 1) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire The Wind Rises (Jap.) - 4 showings (▲ 2) The Wind Rises (Can.) - 1 showing (▼ 2) Walking With Dinosaurs (3D Eng.) - 2 showings Firestorm will dominate Broadway/AMC screens as its an EDKO film. Most theaters there have allocated 3 screens to Firestorm (1 for 3D, 2 for 2D, with 2 of the biggest screens going to it). The big surprise here is that 2D is getting more play than 3D. Usually 3D dwarfs over 2D but I think EDKO would rather capitalize on getting as much money as possible than lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because of not enough screens for 2D. At UA, Firestorm is still the big movie but screens are more spread out. Early pre-sales are quite weak for Firestorm so other films could snatch bigger screens this weekend. Meanwhile, The Wind Rises is making a big push for screens this week. After a fruitful early release on Saturday and Sunday, it more than doubled Frozen's admissions on Monday and is the "alternative" for viewers this week. Many will come to experience Hayao Miyazaki's last directorial film on the big screen and it should play very well into the holidays. Both Broadway/AMC and UA theater chains have allocated 1 screen to the Japanese anime in the 3rd or 4th biggest screens but if its robust pre-sales continue and Firestorm keeps on having problems with pre-sales, we could see a slight shift this weekend. Another cartoon, this time a Hollywood one, debuted with good sneak previews last weekend. Although Frozen pulled out a victory over Wreck-It Ralph's sneaks, all signs point to a weaker finish in total. Screens at both Broadway/AMC and UA have it in the 4th biggest screens and even sharing a screen with another film. Admissions is behind The Wind Rises although weekday admissions are a lot weaker than weekend. Last Sunday, it jumped 20%+ from Saturday. A bit of good news for Frozen is that Golden Harvest is supporting it over The Wind Rises. It's not much but it's something. Walking with Dinosaurs got shafted. I guess prehistoric creatures just don't interest Hong Kong crowds. This one is getting just 2-3 showtimes at almost every location. As for holdovers, The Hobbit 2 is getting mixed feedback from different theater chains. The more expensive theaters are holding onto The Hobbit 2 more with it getting about 4-5 showtimes whereas rural theaters are dumping this for new movies or giving it a measly showtime in the morning. Theater owners are definitely not in a forgiving mood this winter. After last year's disappointing venture with The Hobbit and excessive ticket pricing, theaters are not going through that same process again. The White Storm is getting crushed by Firestorm at Broadway/AMC but has carved out a few showtimes or even 1 screen at UA/MCL/GH. It had a pretty decent 2nd weekend drop so theaters aren't to kick it out over a new film just yet. No Breathing and Free Birds are the big losers this week. No Breathing gasped for air on opening weekend and has been holding its breath ever since. Free Birds will get attacked from all sides this week with 3 different types of family films lined up.

Weekend update#1: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug managed to pull away from The White Storm this weekend thanks to an increase on Sunday, however opening weekend admissions are down close to 15% from TH: An Unexpected Journey. In gross, it'll make about $1.35m this weekend.#2: The White Storm held on tight to #2 as it recorded higher attendance than The Hobbit on Thursday and Friday. It is looking at a weekend of about $775,000 for a 2 week total of $2.7m. 4m should happen.For the 'sneak'ers:The Wind Rises blew through the cold and scored an early victory in admissions over Frozen. In gross, it turned out to be a close call due to Frozen's 3D prices but The Wind Rises gets an early Christmas present.It's not all bad news for Frozen though. Frozen outperformed Wreck-It Ralph's sneaks from last year with 12,500 admissions this weekend. I guess people were more receptive to Frozen after the success of Wreck-It Ralph, however, word of mouth is not as strong as Wreck-It Ralph or The Wind Rises. It remains to be seen if this cartoon can overtake Wreck-It Ralph's title as the biggest winter animated release ever but with 4 family films out next weekend, I'm not convinced that it can.Both The Wind Rises and Frozen will carry on with sneaks during the week so this battle will stretch into both of their opening weekends.As for Firestorm, the new Andy Lau flick, it has gotten a lot of hype and promotion. It held sneak previews in 4 theaters and retained a 95%+ capacity rate at all of them. This will be the film to beat over Christmas week, however, The White Storm still has momentum so it'll be interesting to see if one cancels out the other or if they both struggle under the weight of the competition and each other or if both can survive. No, it will be a mix of both good and bad. Top 20 Surprises List (2013 edition)*This list is incomplete. Do not take the list below as final.These are the contenders for this year's top 20 list.The GrandmasterCloud AtlasWarm BodiesGangster SquadLost in ThailandA Good Day to Die HardJourney to the West: Conquering the DemonsSilver Linings PlaybookOz: The Great and PowerfulG.I. Joe: RetaliationThe CroodsFinding Mr. RightIron Man 3The CallPee Mak Phra KhanongSearching for Sugar ManFast & Furious 6American Dreams in ChinaNow You See MeWorld War ZMan of SteelDespicable Me 2Blind DetectiveMonsters UniversityPacific RimThe WolverineThe Smurfs 2The Way We DanceThe Stolen YearsSadako 2GravityInfernoAbout TimeRigor MortisThor: The Dark WorldEscape PlanThe White StormOne of the names here will be the #1 surprise of 2013. Who will it be?

The White Storm: Can it deliver the goods against a behemoth?One of the biggest surprises of this winter is last week's champ. The White Storm roared to a $1.3m opening weekend and sent The Hunger Games tumbling down 56% on its 3rd weekend. It'll face a huge challenge when The Hobbit swarms into HK theaters in hopes of overthrowing the latest acting trio venture. One of the things going for The White Storm is the fact that prices are at normal levels. It does not have an added surcharge like The Hunger Games nor does it have a ridiculous fare hike ala The Hobbit 2. Maybe that will ensure it stabilizes with a sizable 2nd weekend take.The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug...will viewers tune in or shy away from the sequel?After a disappointing run for the first film, The Hobbit is back this year to take care of business. Last year, The Hobbit opened to a meager 1.48m despite having ticket prices set at record highs. It lost to the finale of Twilight on its 2nd weekend and fell hard after the holidays. It didn't even manage to beat Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King, which many expected it to beat.The Hobbit 2 has some incredible competition in The White Storm but also with early sneaks. Movie theaters are throwing everything but the kitchen sink to get people to watch movies and this is not doing The Hobbit 2 any favours. Ticket prices for The Hobbit 2 have eclipsed last year's records and are an earth-shattering $30-60 more than regular 3D priced movies. If we have learned anything from last year, it's that moviegoers aren't going to spend that much more for a non-event movie. Admissions have been tepid and are behind The White Storm at most places.UA Times Square re-opens...under a new name?!After the crushing blow of having the rug pulled out from under them, UA Times Square has re-opened but this time it's been re-branded under the new name 'Cine Times'. The new theater boasts around 900 leather seats, 5 theaters altogether and 2 of them capable of playing Dolby Atmos versions of movies. Early returns have been a little disappointing but maybe business will pick up during the holidays.Early screenings...we've got them. You (don't) want them.In an effort to engage moviegoers to head to the theater, theaters will offer many early screenings to films releasing this month. Here's the list:Free Birds (Special Screenings: Dec 7/8 - Dec 12 release)Firestorm (Special Screenings: Dec 14 - Dec 19 release)The Wind Rises (Special Screenings: Dec 14/15 - Dec 19 release)Frozen (Special Screenings: Dec 14/15 - Dec 19 release)The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Special Screenings: Dec 21 - Dec 25 release)The 3 December 19 films will be of considerable interest as it will squeeze into The Hobbit/The White Storm showings this weekend. It will also give us an early preview into Christmas week. Tops on my watch list will be The Wind Rises. I am excited about this one's box office prospects. 2nd would have to be Firestorm but can 2 HK movies survive at once together with big Hollywood films?2013 Surprises...just how many will there be?In compiling the list for this year's biggest surprises, I have come to the conclusion that there is just too many to choose from. Instead of the usual 10, this year I will be making a top 20 list.

November 9 Update - Saturday:#1 was Thor 2, which fell a solid 45% in admissions. In gross, because of the switch from 3D to 2D this week, its hold will be slightly larger, around 50%. Overall though, it is a pretty good hold with Ender's Game out this week competing for screens. 5m is a lock.#2: Escape Plan was a nice surprise this week. Although Sylvester Stallone has not had huge takings here in HK, this will be one of his better openers. It opened around $60,000 on Thursday so weekend take should be around $300,000. Reviews are very strong.#3: Rigor Mortis continues to shine. Another incredibly strong hold this weekend. 2m will happen soon.#4: Ender's Game stunk. It averaged only 29 people per showing on Thursday. #3 this weekend will be fairly close. User reviews are on the positive side.

October 31 Weekend Actuals1. Thor 2 - $2,063,913 (opening weekend actual, $52,980 PTA)2. Rigor Mortis - $1,289,9463. Captain Phillips - $1,225,4484. Prisoners - $193,491 (opening weekend actual, $9,213 PTA)5. Like Father, Like Son - $167,692 (opening weekend actual, $12,899 PTA)Outstanding for Thor 2. It nearly doubled Thor's opening weekend. I think 5m is a lock with this number. Rigor Mortis equally shined at #2. Let's see if it has enough momentum to get to 2m. Captain Phillips held up nicely. Prisoners did alright. Like Father, Like Son had a very good opening weekend.

Daily admissions (OW) Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Total Thor 20,466 22,338 37,071 39,375 119,250 Thor 2 30,100 32,000 55,989 55,100 173,189 Gap +9,634 +19,296 +38,214 +53,939 Thor 2's Sunday is down just -1.6% from Saturday. That's pretty good considering that only 1 Marvel-produced film has managed a better Sunday hold in the past few years. This is a good indicator of strong word of mouth. Looking at the user reviews since opening day, most seem to agree that this is better than the first. Thor 2 opening weekend estimate: $1,720,000 Very good number. 5m is possible.

Yeah, Thor 2 was never going to get a lot of benefit from The Avengers. The first Thor film had mediocre reviews and Thor is not as popular of a character as Iron Man. Also, Robert Downey Jr. is insanely popular and recognizable unlike Chris Hemsworth. It's kind of a shame that Thor 2 is not doing bigger numbers here. It's the best Marvel-produced superhero movie to come out in the past 5 years in my opinion.

Thursday's box office (October 31 -- Happy Halloween) 1. Thor 2 - $386,993 (including Wednesday midnights, opening day actual) 2. Rigor Mortis - $928,783 (-2% from last Thursday) 3. Captain Phillips - $1,006,181 4. Prisoners - $29,669 (opening day actual) Thor vs. Thor 2 Opening Weekend Comparison Daily admissions (OW) Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Total Thor 20,466 22,338 37,071 39,375 119,250 Thor 2 30,100 (est.) 32,000 (est.) 55,989 118,089 Gap +9,634 +19,296 +38,214 -1,161 Thor 2 almost matches Thor's opening weekend admissions in 3 days. Very impressive. Rigor Mortis is making quite a name for itself too. It slimmed down just 2% from last week, partially due to Halloween but mostly due to good word of mouth. It's having a great run so far.

Just watched Thor 2. It's better than the first and I'm not ashamed to say it's the best movie of the year. It deserves to make 5m at least.Box office: Thor 2 is still looking very good. It'll increase 7% on Friday which is heavily down from Thor's Friday increase but this is winter and weekends will make up a lot of ground for the weaker Friday increase. As for The Hunger Games enthusiasts, Catching Fire should do very well in Hong Kong. The Hunger Games opened softly (2nd lowest opening weekend of all Asian territories) but held superbly (2nd best legs of all Asian markets). I expect Catching Fire to make about 1.6m OW and a total between 4.5-5.5m.