GREECE: 'Kung Fu Panda 4' punches through competition for 4th time in a row

[Quigley]

Weekend 31/03 - 03/04/2016

Ranking	Title	Weekend admissions	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions	Week
1	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	41,998	-65.7%	218,025	2
2	Kung Fu Panda 3	12,547	-61.2%	106,352	3
3	10 Cloverfield Lane	8,661	N/A	8,661	1
4	Suntan [GR]	7,942	N/A	7,942	1
5	Zootopia	7,853	-55.9%	115,642	5
6	London Has Fallen	3,484	-55.3%	116,771	5
7	El Abrazo de la Serpiente [Colombian]	3,236	N/A	3,236	1
8	Francofonia [French-language French-German-Dutch]	2,602	N/A	2,602	1
9	Eddie the Eagle	1,927	N/A	1,927	1
10	Urok [Bulgarian-language Bulgarian-Greek]	1,882	N/A	1,882	1

 

Source: http://flix.gr/news/box-office-31032016.html

 

Just like everywhere esle, 'Batman v Superman' plummeted in its sophomore frame at the Greek box office, by a whopping 66%. However, it's difficult to isolate the effect of word-of-mouth on this drop, because all films dropped substantially this weekend. 'Kung Fu Panda 3', 'Zootopia' and 'London Has Fallen' all dropped between 55% and 62%, which is of course less than 66% but still close enough to justify not rejecting the hypothesis that the holiday of last weekend is responsible for BvS's drop. Furthermore, other superhero movies have had similar sophomore drops:

 

Film	Second-weekend drop	Notes
Spider-Man 3	62.7%	(Athens only)
The Dark Knight	52%
Avengers Age of Ultron	62.6%
Deadpool	59.1%
Marvel's the Avengers	49.9%
Iron Man	52.9%	(Athens only)
Iron Man 2	59.2%	(Athens only)

 

Obviously none of the above are as low as 65.7% but none of the above were released on a holiday either. The weekday-to-weekend ratio also does not suggest significant frontloadedness. All in all, I would suggest that negative word-of-mouth had a minor effect, if it had any effect at all. I guess it would sound contradictory after doing this extensive analysis, but I think we shouldn't obsess with the second-weekend drop too much. If the film achieves drops of around 50% for the remainder of its run, the upcoming Easter holidays should help it scrape the 300,000-admission mark (Easter in Greece is on the 1st of May this year - school holidays last for two weeks, one before and one after Easter - the public holiday will be five days, from Friday to Tuesday, both included).

 

The big drops for 'Kung Fu Panda 3' and 'Zootopia' were not totally unexpected but could have been smaller. Although such drops could obviously not be good, in terms of the race between these two films, they certainly benefit 'Zootopia', which still has chances of finishing ahead. Their relative drops in the following weeks will be crucial. 'Kung Fu Panda 3' will soon surpass its predecessor (110,185 admissions), although the first film's total is somewhat out of reach (200,600 admissions). 'London Has Fallen' has maintained a lead in total admissions compared to 'Zootopia', which will come to an end next weekend. However it has had an impressive run, with a 4.5x multiple that should end up being higher than 5x by the end of its run. This compares well to the 3.87x multiplier of 'Olympus Has Fallen'. Quite unexpected for a sequel belonging to a front-loaded genre (action thriller).

 

Newcomers were numerous and quite successful (6 of them got into the weekend's Top 10). '10 Cloverfield Lane' was the winner in terms of total admissions but 'Suntan' sold only slightly less from half the number of screens (44 vs 23). 'Eddie the Eagle' was definitely a dud, since its screen count was 28. The other three had a screen count between 4 and 6, so their results were certainly not a disappointment.

 

Next weekend sees the release of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2'. The first one earned 810,000 admissions (!) back in 2002-2003, but the long waiting time between it and the sequel, as well as the lukewarm reception of the marketing and the film itself, suggests that this one will not even come close to those numbers. I see a similar situation to the '300' franchise, where the second one made a third of the first one. It seems like a plausible scenario for 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' and would put its total gross at 270,000 admissions.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Quigley

[Joel M]

Although Easter is pretty much the worst holiday for cinemas in Greece. All theaters are closed Fri-Sat and barely anyone goes to the movies on Easter Sunday. The weekdays before and after are better than usual because of school holidays but for most movies it's not enough to balance the humongous weekend drop because that Thu-to-Sun is basically a 1.5 day weekend for theatres.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Joel M

[Quigley]

4 hours ago, Joel M said:

Although Easter is pretty much the worst holiday for cinemas in Greece. All theaters are closed Fri-Sat and barely anyone goes to the movies on Easter Sunday. The weekdays before and after are better than usual because of school holidays but for most movies it's not enough to balance the humongous weekend drop because that Thu-to-Sun is basically a 1.5 day weekend for theatres.

 

I think you're right about this in general but this year I read that the holiday will be extended til Tuesday to make up for the fact that May Day falls on Sunday (and Monday is already a public holiday). So this year films may benefit from the long weekend.

 

What about animated films? Do you think they benefit from the two-week holidays despite the drop on Easter weekend?

Edited April 5, 2016 by Quigley

[Joel M]

1 hour ago, Quigley said:

 

I think you're right about this in general but this year I read that the holiday will be extended til Tuesday to make up for the fact that May Day falls on Sunday (and Monday is already a public holiday). So this year films may benefit from the long weekend.

 

What about animated films? Do you think they benefit from the two-week holidays despite the drop on Easter weekend?

 

Animated films definately benefit the most but most other movies won't really. My point is that for most movies the mega drop on Easter weekend negates the better weekdays they might have. The extra public holiday helps, but Easter just isn't a movie going holiday.

[Quigley]

Weekend 07-10/04/2016

 

Ranking	Title	Weekend admissions	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions	Week
1	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	33,994	N/A	33,994	1
2	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	14,729	-64.9%	252,776	3
3	Kung Fu Panda 3	7,589	-39.5%	115,295	4
4	Zootopia	6,424	-18.2%	123,397	6
5	Somnia	5,659	N/A	5,659	1
6	Suntan [GR]	4,753	-40.2%	15,502	2
7	10 Cloverfield Lane	3,484	-59.8%	18,027	2
8	Hardcore Henry [English-laguage Russian-American]	2,315	N/A	2,315	1
9	El Abrazo de la Serpiente [Colombian]	2,211	-31.7%	6,875	2
10	Heidi [Swiss]	2,041	N/A	2,041	1

 

Sources: http://www.grandmagazine.gr/ngine/article/3027/box-office-oi-kalesmenoi-snomparan-telika-to-gamo

http://freecinema.gr/greek-box-office-not-that-fat-for-a-greek-wedding/

 

The wedding was not as fat the second time round. The first one had opened to the tune of 13,143 admissions in July 2002 on 15 screens (instead of this one's 109 screens) before explosively positive word-of-mouth dragged it through the entire second half of that year and into the next one, finishing with 810,000 admissions. This time though, no such word-of-mouth is expected and the prediction of 270,000 admissions I made last weekend is probably far out of reach. In second place, 'Dawn of Justice' did not recover from its pathetic second-weekend drop and is now unlikely to reach 300,000 admissions (some may argue it was unlikely anyway but I remained a bit more conservative in my projections).

 

The race between 'Panda 3' and 'Zootopia' continues with no clear winner yet. The weekend's drop favoured 'Zootopia' again which is stiill aiming for that 150K-admission milestone but 'Panda 3' is close behind. Nothing else was really interesting about holdovers, except maybe that 'El Abrazo de la Serpiente' held well and achieved the best per-screen average of the Top 10 from only 7 screens. As for other newcomers, the scene is devastating. Total weekend admissions reached a new record low for 2016 (a record that is broken nearly every weekend) but next weekend is already aiming to break that record again due to disinterested viewers and disinteresting choices.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Quigley

[Joel M]

^

When you say record low do you mean record low for 2016 or record low compared to previous Aprils/Springs? Because if it's the former it's quite normal. Moviegoing in Greece is a heavily seasonal thing. There's always big difference in admissions for September-March to April-August. There always gonna be hit movies in those months but from the moment the weather starts getting better overall attendance starts to drop and  doesn't recover until the Summer is over. That's why a lot of mid-summer blockbusters get pushed back to late August-September here.

[Quigley]

On 13/4/2016 at 7:43 PM, Joel M said:

^

When you say record low do you mean record low for 2016 or record low compared to previous Aprils/Springs? Because if it's the former it's quite normal. Moviegoing in Greece is a heavily seasonal thing. There's always big difference in admissions for September-March to April-August. There always gonna be hit movies in those months but from the moment the weather starts getting better overall attendance starts to drop and  doesn't recover until the Summer is over. That's why a lot of mid-summer blockbusters get pushed back to late August-September here.

 

I don't know if it's an all-time record but it is defo a record for 2016.

[Quigley]

Weekend 14-17/04/2016

 

Ranking	Title	Weekend admissions	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions	Week
1	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	15,103	-55.6%	64,897	2
2	Dirty Grandpa	9,172	N/A	9,172	1
3	Criminal	7,235	N/A	7,235	1
4	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	5,929	-59.7%	265,545	4
5	Zootopia	4,271	-33.5%	128,501	7
6	Kung Fu Panda 3	3,775	-50.3%	119,987	5
7	Somnia	2,955	-47.8%	12,917	2
8	La Novia [English-language Spanish-Turkish-German]	2,190	N/A	2,190	1
9	Fuocoammare [Italian]	2,006	N/A	2,006	1
10	Suntan [GR]	1,938	-59.2%	19,607	3

 

Source: http://flix.gr/news/box-office-14042016.html

 

A new record-low for 2016 was achieved this weekend with total admissions falling below 70,000. The absence of any high-profile releases and the drastic drops across the board (starting with 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2') are to blame. It is now official: 'Wedding 2' has tanked. Not only did open very softly but word-of-mouth is simply horrendous. Reaching 100,000 admissions will be tough and unlikely. Along the same lines, 'Batman v Superman' continued its precipitous fall to the bottom with a 60% drop. If it is lucky, it may reach 280,000 admissions. 'Zootopia' established its lead against 'Panda 3', out-grossing the latter over the weekend. As happened this week in most other countries, 'Zootopia' may experience another 50%+ drop next weekend, when 'The Jungle Book' is released. It will arrive just in time for the Easter holidays, which may not be as lucrative for other films, but animated/family films should get their fair boost over the two-week period. I still think 'Zootopia' can reach 150,000 admissions but it is far from a certainty. There is really nothing to say about the rest of the films, openers or holdovers... disappointment is in the air.

[Quigley]

New films released this weekend:

• Short Fuse [GR]
• Η Αθήνα από κάτω - Το ντοκιμαντέρ των νεόπτωχων (I Athina apo kato - To ntokimanter ton neoptohon; Athens from beneath - The documentary of the new poor) [GR]
• The Jungle Book
• Itsi Bitsi [Danish]
• Mon Roi [French]
• High Strung
• Elser – Er hätte die Welt verändert [German]
• Race
• Утомлённые солнцем 2 (Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanie) [Russian]
• Midnight Special
• Robinson Crusoe [English-language Belgian-French]

Edited April 21, 2016 by Quigley

[Quigley]

Weekend 21-24/04/2016

 

Ranking	Title	Weekend admissions	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions	Week
1	The Jungle Book	20,488	N/A	20,488	1
2	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	5,891	-61.0%	77,342	3
3	Dirty Grandpa	5,341	-41.8%	20,877	2
4	Robinson Crusoe [English-language Belgian-French]	4,328	N/A	4,328	1
5	Criminal	4,282	-40.8%	16,222	2
6	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	2,849	-51.9%	271,551	5
7	Race	2,732	N/A	2,732	1
8	Short Fuse [GR]	2,604	N/A	2,604	1
9	Midnight Special	2,570	N/A	2,570	1
10	Mon Roi [French]	2,013	N/A	2,013	1

 

Source: http://flix.gr/news/box-office-21042016.html

 

This weekend was much worse than expected. It could be the nice weather, it could be the deepening crisis, it could be the absence of something interesting to see but, in any case, people are choosing to not go to the cinema. First place expectedly went to 'The Jungle Book'. However, its performance was underwhelming compared to its grosses in other countries. It was worse than most high-profile family films released in the past months ('The Good Dinosaur', 'The Little Prince', 'Zootopia', 'Kung Fu Panda 3') and it doesn't comapre well to other Disney live-action films either:

 

Disney live-action (since 2008)
Title	Opening weekend	Release date
National Treasures: Book of Secrets	85,000	03/01/08
Alice in Wonderland	83,183	04/07/10
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	60,569	20/05/10
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	49,818	21/08/08
Maleficent	45,705	29/05/14
Cinderella	44,917	12/03/15
The Lone Ranger	33,255	04/07/13
John Carter	22,066	08/03/12
Oz the Great and Powerful	21,936	07/03/13
Tomorrowland	21,441	28/05/15
The Jungle Book	20,488	21/04/16
The Sorcerer's Apprentice	20,479	16/07/10
Tron: Legacy	19,262	16/12/10

 

'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' and 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' continued their precipitous decline. The former will probably finish around 90,000 admissions and the latter around 275,000 admissions. 'Dirty Grandpa' and 'Criminal' had somewhat more decent holds but all films are headed for big drops next weekend (and during the upcoming weekdays) since this Sunday is Easter Sunday and one reserved for celebrations and family reunions, not moviegoing. This past weekend's total admissions almost beat the previous one's record-low for 2016, but Easter weekend will claim that record with ease. 'Kung Fu Panda 3' and 'Zootopia' both dropped more than 50%, essentially pushing their runs nearer to the end.

 

A torrent of new releases failed to make any waves, despite many of them opening on more than 20 screens. Distributors have evidently flushed whatever films they thought were not gonna make any money down the drain and are looking forward to the post-Easter period. 'Captain America 3', 'Angry Birds', 'X-Men: Apocalypse' and 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' will be released on four consecutive May weekends.

[Quigley]

DreamWorks Animation (since 2003)
Title	Opening weekend	Release date	Total admissions	Multiple
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	50,360	18/12/08	323,607	6.43
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	57,560	30/08/12	255,166	4.43
Puss in Boots	18,810	22/12/11	230,620	12.26
Shrek Forever After	20,620	19/08/10	210,550	10.21
Madagascar	60,000	27/10/05	210,000	3.50
Kung Fu Panda	38,580	04/09/08	200,600	5.20
Shrek the Third	28,400	06/09/07	181,250	6.38
Bee Movie	17,200	13/12/07	166,400	9.67
Shark Tale	23,000	24/12/04	166,000	7.22
Shrek 2	40,600	22/10/04	161,500	3.98
How to Train Your Dragon	6,770	01/04/10	128,320	18.95**
Penguins of Madagascar	30,637	27/11/14	128,191	4.18
Kung Fu Panda 3	35,335	17/03/16	121,857	3.45
How to Train Your Dragon 2	17,897	12/06/14	117,079	6.54
Kung Fu Panda 2	27,040	02/06/11	115,000	4.25
Monsters vs Aliens	22,600	02/04/09	81,860	3.62
Home	13,168	02/04/15	72,958	5.54
Mr. Peabody and Sherman	23,498	27/02/14	69,149*	2.94
Over the Hedge	20,000	05/10/06	65,000*	3.25
The Croods	21,897	18/04/13	63,984	2.92
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas	12,500	24/10/03	63,000*	5.04
Turbo	7,681	18/07/13	35,128*	4.57
Flushed Away	19,500	30/11/06	33,800*	1.73
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	9,000***	08/12/05	25,500*	2.83
Megamind	6,460	16/12/10	20,580	3.19
Rise of the Guardians	4,485	29/11/12	8,370*	1.87

 

 

*Totals with an asterisk are not final. After this point the films dropped below the Weekend Top 10 and further information about their total admissions was not reported. Their totals should be between 5,000 and 20,000 more than what I have here.

**This film was released on Easter weekend which is nototriously quiet for moviegoing. No wonder it had such a high multiplier.

***No info on the nationwide opening of 'Wallace & Gromit' was found. This is an estimate based on the reported number for Athens (6,000 admissions).

 

This is the long-delayed table of DWA films. 'Kung Fu Panda 3' has a slim chance of jumping ahead by two spots but not any more. As far as sequels go, it is the third lowest one, but it is above Kung Fu Panda 2. Its muliple however is the lowest for the series and don't forget that I haven't included previews in its opening weekend admissions, which makes it even worse. Its opening weekend was actually the 6th biggest of the bunch, but with one of the lowest mulitpliers, which probably has to do with the time of year it was released. As expected, films released in December have a much greater mulitplier on average (7.8x vs 4.9x).

Edited May 12, 2016 by Quigley

[Quigley]

New films released this weekend:

 

Thursday 28/04

• Risen
• Ratchet & Clank
• The Huntsman: Winter's War

 

Sunday 01/05

• Mother's Day
• Les Visiteurs: La Révolution [French-language French-Belgian-Czech]
• The Sea of Trees
• Un tango más [Spanish-language German-Argentinian]

 

Many cinemas are closed on Friday and Saturday due to the Easter holidays. That is why some distributors set film premieres on Sunday.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Quigley

[Quigley]

According to Deadline, 'The Hunstman: Winter's War' made $45K over the weekend, which should translate to about 6,000 admissions. The article doesn't say if it finished in first place, although my past experience tells me that when they don't mention something like that, it's because it didn't happen. So I presume 'The Jungle Book' stayed at #1, although the drop will definitely be above 50%.

 

https://deadline.com/2016/05/captain-america-civil-war-jungle-book-huntsman-batman-superman-international-box-office-weekend-results-1201747374/

Edited May 3, 2016 by Quigley

[Quigley]

Easter Weekend 28/04 - 03/05/2016
 

Ranking	Title	4-day admissions (Thu-Sun)	% Change from last weekend	6-day admissions (Thu-Tue)	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions (up to Tuesday)	Week
1	The Huntsman: Winter's War	7,245	N/A	18,964	N/A	18,964	1
2	The Jungle Book	4,172	-79.6%	15,425	-24.7%	48,987	2
3	Robinson Crusoe [English-language Belgian-French]	884	-79.6%	4,406	+1.8%	11,574	2
4	Mother's Day*	754	N/A	3,865	N/A	3,865	1
5	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	924	-84.3%	2,816	-52.2%	83,264	4
6	Dirty Grandpa	955	-82.1%	2,536	-52.5%	27,715	3
7	Ratchet & Clank	658	N/A	2,512	N/A	2,512	1
8	Risen	618	N/A	2,487	N/A	2,487	1
9	Zootopia	567	-60.5%	2,072	+44.5%	133,247	9
10	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	575	-79.8%	1,545	-45.8%	275,265	6

*Released on Sunday, May 1st, instead of the normal Thursday

 

Source: http://freecinema.gr/greek-box-office-a-huntsman-for-the-viewers/

http://flix.gr/news/box-office-28042016.html

http://www.grandmagazine.gr/ngine/article/3085/to-pasxalino-box-office-kai-i-anamenomeni-anastasi

 

UPDATE (Friday): The results of this past very-long weekend were finally released. They were pretty much expected although my prediction for #1 was wrong. The above 6-day totals are shown since Monday was a holiday, because of Easter, and Labour Day was transfered to Tuesday. For the 4-day weekend, 'Winter's War' was in first place with a higher-than-estimated 7,245 admissions, followed by 'The Jungle Book' with 4,172 admissions. With school holidays ending on Sunday, I think 'The Jungle Book' still has a long way to go although the release of 'Captain America: Civil War' today (Thursday) is bound to affect it to some extent. I have to say that the first three titles out-performed my expectations, although their 6-day admissions are nothing to brag about. In their defence, Good Friday and Saturday are days on which virtually no one goes to the cinema, i.e. the numbers in the table are essentially 4-day grosses. However, 'Winter's War' was nowhere near its predecessor's opening (42,255 admissions) and 'The Jungle Book' has tanked here compared to its performance in other countries. 'Crusoe' has done OK, but its % increase is nothing compared to Zootopia's. 'Mother's Day' has managed to reach 4th place despite opening on Sunday (so essentially a 3-day gross). Below that, though, most films have disappointed, although nothing more was expected of them anyway. With drops near 50% (and remember this % change compares a 4-day weekend to a 6-day weekend) or anemic openings, I am desperately hoping that 'Civil War' will open at least at 'Iron Man' levels (60,000 admissions), since opening on par with either of the 'Avengers' seems like a bit of a stretch. Total admissions for the 4-day weekend amounted to a dismal 20,475, meaning that it was undoubtedly a record-low for 2016 as expected. Overall, it was an interesting long weekend though: the Monday-to-Wednesday total was 72,223 admissions. Most films made more on each of these three days than on the entire 4-day weekend, giving an interesting insight into Easter moviegoing habits.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Quigley

[Quigley]

I have updated the table and text above with the standard 4-day weekend numbers. Here are the numbers for Wednesday, May 4:

 

Ranking	Title	Admissions
1	The Huntsman: Winter's War	8,851
2	The Jungle Book	5,100
3	Mother's Day	1,960
4	Robinson Crusoe [English-language Belgian-French]	1,304
5	Dirty Grandpa	1,166
6	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	808
7	Risen	797
8	Ratchet & Clank	750
9	Zootopia	724
10	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	508

 

Both 'Winter's War' and 'The Jungle Book' are doing quite well. The prior had its best day yet although the 134,000 admissions of its predecessor are still far far away, while the latter only dropped slightly from the daily average of Monday and Tuesday. It can see it reaching 75,000 admissions by Sunday for a target of 100,000 admissions by the end of its run. 'Mother's Day' is picking up speed as we approach Sunday (Mother's Day) but it's still looking quite bad.

[Quigley]

With very rough calculations that only include weekend admissions, aggregate admissions from the first four months of 2016 are at exactly the same level as the respective period of 2015.

[Quigley]

Weekend 05-08/05/2015

Ranking	Title	Weekend admissions	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions	Week
1	Captain America: Civil War	101,800	N/A	101,800	1
2	The Jungle Book	12,017	-22.1%	66,104	3
3	The Huntsman: Winter's War	9,608	-49.3%	37,423	2
4	Mother's Day	4,925	+27.4%	10,750	2
5	Robinson Crusoe [English-language Belgian-French]	4,492	+2.0%	17,370	3
6	Theeb [Arabic-laguage Jordanian]	3,226	N/A	3,226	1
7	Friend Request [English-laguage German]	2,849	N/A	2,849	1
8	Ratchet & Clank	2,031	-19.1%	5,293	2
9	Dirty Grandpa	1,042	-58.9%	29,923	4
10	Risen	979	-60.6%	4,263	2

Sources: http://flix.gr/news/box-office-05052016.html

http://freecinema.gr/greek-box-office-captain-america-to-the-rescue/

 

'Civil War' had a spectacular opening, beating the already elevated expectations after it had matched - or come close to matching - 'Age of Ultron' in the rest of the world. It posted the third-best superhero debut ever, coming in right above 'The Dark Knight' and 'Spider-Man 2', which are both estimated at 100,000 admissions (if actuals were available, 'Civil War' might have actually been fourth or fifth-best). Most importantly, it scored an MCU opening-weekend record. Dunno if Spider-Man being in the film made it more interesting for Greek viewers. The recession of the market and recent box-office failures indicated anything but such a success for future Marvel films. 200,000 admissions is guaranteed (c'mon, even BvS has achieved a 2.26x multiplier). In fact, a 2.5x mulitple would be on the low side for a superhero film so unless it is as frontloaded as last year's 'Age of Ultron', it will probably beat the 242,565-admission total of the first 'Avengers' to become the biggest MCU film ever.

 

Superhero openings (since 2003)
Rank	Title	Opening weekend	Total
1	Spider-Man 3	159,000	366,987
2	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	122,428	276,311
3	Captain America: Civil War	101,800
4	Spider-Man 2	100,000*	385,700
5	The Dark Knight	100,000	339,520
6	Avengers: Age of Ultron	94,250	224,334
7	Deadpool	77,774	217,088
8	The Avengers	75,755	242,565
9	The Dark Knight Rises	74,530	346,585
10	Iron Man 3	66,278	206,006
11	Iron Man	61,400	146,800
12	Iron Man 2	61,080	150,000

*estimate

 

In other news, some films had decent drops (the drops displayed are comparing them to the 6-day weekend), while others had a hard fall. Given the momentum they had on Wednesday though, all films clearly felt the impact of 'Civil War'. Some actually earned less on the entire 4-day weekend compared to Wednesday. 'The Jungle Book' has only dropped 41% from its opening frame two weeks ago. If it continues this momentum, it may in fact reach 100,000 admissions. Equally impressive is the staying power of 'Robinson Crusoe', which made 14% more this weekend comapred to its opening (also two weeks ago). I'm not sure if this staying power will continue now that the holidays are over and with the release of 'Angry Birds' on Thursday. Furthermore, 'Winter's War' is guaranteed to finish with less than 50% of its predecessor's admissions. Apart from 'Winter's War', 'Mother's Day' has been the most "successful" film among those released on Easter weekend, although maybe "the least disappointing" is a more accurate assessment of its performance. Among other newcomers, only 'Friend Request' managed to break into the Top 10, for which I admittedly have nothing interesting to say.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Quigley

[Quigley]

Reporting admissions for the Greek box office is not the most exact science. Actually, it is up to the distributors to release the official numbers, which they receive from the 'Greek Film Center'. Therefore, certain sites may often resort to drastic measures in order to find out what the actual admissions are, if distributors are avoiding to disclose the numbers. Something like this might have happened this week since certain sites seem to be reporting 101,800 admissions for 'Civil War' while others are saying 99,636. I'll just go with the majority and change it to 101,800 admissions.

[Quigley]

8 new films, including 4 (!) documentaries are being released this weekend. The real battle is between 'Civil War', looking to retain first place, and 'Angry Birds'. I think the latter should open to at least 35,000 admissions (on par with 'Panda 3'). Given a ~60% drop for 'Civil War', the two would be neck and neck, but I'm giving the edge to 'Civil War'. Here are the openers:

• This Is Not a Coup [GR]
• Το μέσα φως (To mesa fos; The Light Inside) [GR]
• 33.333 - Η Οδύσσεια του Νίκου Καζαντζάκη (33,333 - I Odysseia tou Nikou Kazantzaki; 33,333 - The Odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis) [GR]
• Angry Birds
• The Man Who Knew Infinity
• Remember [Canadian-German]
• Chronic [English-laguage French-Mexican]
• Free to Run [Belgian-French-Swiss]

[Quigley]

Weekend 12-15/05/2016

 

Ranking	Title	Weekend admissions	% Change from last weekend	Total admissions	Week
1	Angry Birds	32,214	N/A	32,214	1
2	Captain America: Civil War	31,601	-69.0%	174,897	2
3	The Man Who Knew Infinity	6,107	N/A	6,107	1
4	The Jungle Book	3,579	-70.2%	70,974	4
5	The Huntsman: Winter's War	3,236	-66.3%	45,619	3
6	Friend Request [English-laguage German]	2,319	-18.6%	7,728	2
7	Theeb [Arabic-laguage Jordanian]	1,945	-39.7%	6,950	2
8	Remember [Canadian-German]	1,917	N/A	1,917	1
9	Mother's Day	1,597	-67.6%	13,936	3
10	Robinson Crusoe [English-language Belgian-French]	952	-78.8%	18,564	4

 

Source: http://freecinema.gr/greek-box-office-why-not-so-angry/

 

We expectedly had a photo finish this weekend, with a 613-admission difference between #1 and #2, i.e. smaller than that between 'Zootopia' and 'London Has Fallen' earlier this year. However, it was a rather Pyrrhic victory for 'Angry Birds' which opened slightly north of 32,000 admissions. It was definitely an opening more successful than most recent family movies (except 'Kung Fu Panda 3') but there are no holidays coming up to help to boost its multiple. It is quite likely that the film will cross 100,000 admissions in the long run but don't expect it to get much higher than that. 'Civil War' on the other hand had a precipitous drop in its second weekend, decidedly worse than BvS's second weekend drop of 66%, as well as 'Age of Ultron's 63%. 50% drops from now on would push it to 230,000 admissions, but with the arrival of 'Apocalypse' next week, that is quite unlikely. I expect a total around 'Deadpool's 217,000 admissions. Other newcomers tanked, with 'The Man Who Knew Infinity' being the only one to achieve a half-decent opening. 'Civil War', however, was not alone in its experience of free fall: a 70% drop was the norm this weekend, since the previous weekend benefited from school holidays on Thursday and Friday (and many people still off work). [UPDATE: I think another reason that all releases dropped so hardly is that national high school exams started on Monday the 16th. That, in addition to university and school exams also starting in early June, means that more and more teens and tweens will be avoiding the cinemas in the coming weeks.] The only exceptions were 'Friend Request' and 'Theeb'. The prior, a supernatural thriller, is probably capitalising on the scarcity of horror films in the market, while the latter should be depending on word-of-mouth since it was, after all, an Oscar Foreign Picture nominee.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Quigley