Hong Kong Hong Kong Box Office

[Bluebomb]

	Thursday			January 8
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Ip Man 3	40,660	9,231	-77.3%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	6,335	--
3	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	24,289	5,747	-76.3%
4	Anniversary	18,468	5,195	-71.9%
5	Secret In Their Eyes	--	2,668	--
6	Daddy's Home	--	2,145	--
7	The 33	--	1,768	--
8	Ten Years	1,156	1,643	+42.1%
9	Joy	9,325	1,618	-82.6%
10	The Little Prince	9,485	1,393	-85.3%

Tough to judge most of these holds based on last week being a half holiday at night. The only good hold was Ten Years.
 

		Weekly Gross (Mon-Sun)							Dec 28-Jan 3
LW	TW	Title	Last Week (HKD)	This Week (HKD)	Days in release	% chg	Total (HKD)	This Week (USD)	Total (USD)
2	1	Ip Man 3	$18,795,184	$19,992,590	11	+6.4%	$40,496,333	$2,588,007	$5,242,183
1	2	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$30,134,633	$15,660,075	18	-48.0%	$72,683,097	$2,027,171	$9,408,707
5	3	Anniversary	$4,425,406	$7,277,207	4	+64.4%	$11,730,151	$942,022	$1,518,448
3	4	The Peanuts Movie	$7,638,876	$5,725,375	11	-25.0%	$14,955,127	$741,140	$1,935,916
4	5	The Little Prince	$5,576,683	$4,595,423	11	-17.6%	$10,800,136	$594,869	$1,398,059
--	6	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	$3,787,716	2	--	$3,787,716	$490,313	$490,313
--	7	Joy	--	$2,568,985	4	--	$2,568,985	$332,550	$332,550
6	8	Yo-Kai Watch	$2,202,285	$1,428,066	11	-35.2%	$3,630,351	$184,860	$469,942
--	9	Ten Years	--	$623,546	18	--	$1,194,020	$80,717	$154,563
9	10	Burnt	$472,207	$349,528	25	-26.0%	$2,779,003	$45,245	$359,737

Strong for Ip Man 3 despite having a full week vs. last week's 4-day opening weekend. Films dropped off precipitously after the New Year and Ip Man 3 did the best of the bunch on Saturday/Sunday. Star Wars 7 had an OK hold. Hidden in that drop are the weaker week-to-week holiday holds but stronger holds after the new year. Pretty good for Anniversary. Decent to good holds for Peanuts/Little Prince. Strong start for Sherlock. Horrid opening for Joy. Joy opened below Silver Linings Playbook's OW even taking out SLP's sneak previews.

[Bluebomb]

		Thursday Actuals						January 8
LW	TW	Movie	Last Thu. (USD)	Thu. (USD)	% chg	Theaters	Days	Total
1	1	Ip Man 3	$455,331	$100,969	-77.8%	41	15	$5,734,562
--	2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	$64,724	--	35	6	$815,524
2	3	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$322,251	$58,899	-81.7%	37	22	$9,699,577
3	4	Anniversary	$232,021	$55,662	-76.0%	36	15	$1,785,092
--	5	Daddy's Home	--	$29,125	--	28	1	$29,125
--	6	Secret In Their Eyes	--	$24,595	--	25	1	--
--	7	The Little Prince	$103,120	--	--	20	15	$1,488,656
--	8	Ten Years	$12,890	$15,533	+20.5%	5	22	$207,117
--	9	Joy	$96,675	--	--	24	8	$427,179
--	10	The 33	--	$12,944	--	17	1	$12,944

Some notes on the above:

Ip Man 3 - 9,700 admits, avg 45 per showing
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride - 6,300 admits, avg 33 per showing
Star Wars 7 - 3,700 admits, avg 28 per showing
Anniversary - 5,400 admits, avg 40 per showing
Daddy's Home - 2,800 admits, avg 26 per showing
Secret in Their Eyes - 2,400 admits, avg 25 per showing
The Little Prince - 1,600 admits, avg 32 per showing
Ten Years - 1,500 admits, avg 80 per showing
Joy - 1,500 admits, avg 25 per showing
The 33 - 1,300 admits, avg 20 per showing

Ip Man 3, Anniversary and Daddy's Home were all underestimated while Secret in Their Eyes and Star Wars 7 is overestimated on the admissions site.

The Little Prince and Joy's Thursday numbers were not given and Secret in Their Eyes' running total was not revealed. Ip Man 3's decline can be considered as one of the better ones this week since its holiday sales are noticably stronger than regular weekdays or weekends. Ip Man 3 passed Ip Man 2's gross on Wednesday and will move ahead of Our Times today and Little Big Master's tomorrow. Sherlock's pre-sales frenzy has cooled off but there are still some pockets of pre-sales heavy showtimes at certain locations. Star Wars 7 had a weak hold but it will pass 10m by next week. Anniversary has done pretty well and will pass 2m by Sunday. Daddy's Home, Secret in Their Eyes and The 33 all bombed. Ten Years is doing extremely well. Joy is a pretty big failure.
 

	Friday adm.	(so far)			January 9
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	18,177	4,239	-76.7%	+34.2%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	3,678	--	+97.7%
3	Ip Man 3	22,948	3,336	-85.5%	+65.0%
4	The Revenant	--	3,226	--	--
5	Anniversary	7,821	1,579	-79.8%	+35.3%
6	Ten Years	1,327	1,099	-17.2%	+20.0%
7	Secret In Their Eyes	342	1,032	+201.8%	+35.3%
8	Daddy's Home	--	727	--	+38.0%
9	The Little Prince	5,548	687	-87.6%	+51.0%
10	The 33	--	515	--	-32.9%

Most holdovers saw better week-to-week holds on Friday than Thursday with the exception of Star Wars 7 and Ten Years. Troubling for Star Wars 7. It had one of the worst increases from Thursday. Sherlock is coming back strong. Ip Man 3 also had a nice bump from yesterday. Revenant opens to a decent pre-sales number. Slightly disappointed with that Anniversary's increase from Thursday. It should have seen a 50% increase at least.

[Bluebomb]

Ip Man 3 review
 

	Friday				January 9
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	48,328	12,023	-75.1%	+30.2%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	9,518	--	+50.2%
3	The Revenant	--	8,739	--	--
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	30,946	7,002	-77.4%	+21.8%
5	Anniversary	18,051	5,578	-69.1%	+7.4%
6	Secret In Their Eyes	--	2,850	--	+6.8%
7	Daddy's Home	--	2,835	--	+32.2%
8	Ten Years	1,509	2,074	+37.4%	+26.2%
9	The Little Prince	10,356	1,506	-85.5%	+8.1%
10	The 33	--	1,502	--	-15.0%

These admissions were taken at 10 pm. Final admissions for some films, especially Ip Man 3, are higher.

Ok for Ip Man 3. It improving on its week-to-week hold from Thursday is a good sign since last Friday was New Year's Day and holidays help Ip Man 3 out a lot. Not bad for Sherlock at all. Good start for Revenant. Opening day reviews have it at a very good 4.4/5. It'll be interesting to see if more of the GA approves this weekend or if OD users slightly overrates it because usually this isn't the type of film that most moviegoers will see. Very bad hold for Star Wars. It was one of three to decrease with the week-to-week hold from Thursday. Very weak daily increase for Anniversary. Poor for Secret in Their Eyes. Not good for Daddy's Home. Excellent for Ten Years. Understandably awful for The Little Prince and major disaster for The 33.

[TigerPaw]

5 hours ago, Bluebomb said:

Ip Man 3 review
 

	Friday				January 9
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	48,328	12,023	-75.1%	+30.2%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	--	9,518	--	+50.2%
3	The Revenant	--	8,739	--	--
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	30,946	7,002	-77.4%	+21.8%
5	Anniversary	18,051	5,578	-69.1%	+7.4%
6	Secret In Their Eyes	--	2,850	--	+6.8%
7	Daddy's Home	--	2,835	--	+32.2%
8	Ten Years	1,509	2,074	+37.4%	+26.2%
9	The Little Prince	10,356	1,506	-85.5%	+8.1%
10	The 33	--	1,502	--	-15.0%

These admissions were taken at 10 pm. Final admissions for some films, especially Ip Man 3, are higher.

Ok for Ip Man 3. It improving on its week-to-week hold from Thursday is a good sign since last Friday was New Year's Day and holidays help Ip Man 3 out a lot. Not bad for Sherlock at all. Good start for Revenant. Opening day reviews have it at a very good 4.4/5. It'll be interesting to see if more of the GA approves this weekend or if OD users slightly overrates it because usually this isn't the type of film that most moviegoers will see. Very bad hold for Star Wars. It was one of three to decrease with the week-to-week hold from Thursday. Very weak daily increase for Anniversary. Poor for Secret in Their Eyes. Not good for Daddy's Home. Excellent for Ten Years. Understandably awful for The Little Prince and major disaster for The 33.

Slow days since New Year, what are the current chances of Ip Man 3 beating Kungfu Hustle?

[Bluebomb]

5 hours ago, TigerPaw said:

Slow days since New Year, what are the current chances of Ip Man 3 beating Kungfu Hustle?

Ip Man 3 still has a good chance of making it provided that The Revenant does not hurt it that much. If The Revenant starts to become the talk of the town then Ip Man 3 will see slightly bigger drops and it could end up behind it but the two mostly serve different audiences so they should not collide with each other that much. In 2010, the weekends after the first January non-holiday weekend were kind to all holdovers. Ip Man 3 is running behind Avatar in holds but I could see drops between 20-30% for the next 3 weekends allowing it to surpass Kung Fu Hustle and 8m.

 

All of January's openers look like B movies or Oscar films that don't generate a lot of sales. There will be some local films opening but again, January is mostly a dead period aside from New Year's weekend (or if Chinese New Year is in January) so I doubt they will affect Ip Man 3 all that much.

 

By the way, have you seen Ip Man 3? What did you think of it?

 

	Saturday adm.	(so far)			January 10
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	12,342	6,679	-45.9%	+57.6%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	18,308	5,716	-68.8%	+55.4%
3	Ip Man 3	12,127	4,962	-59.1%	+48.7%
4	The Revenant	--	4,818	--	+49.3%
5	Anniversary	3,676	2,120	-42.3%	+34.3%
6	Ten Years	1,420	1,731	+21.9%	+57.5%
7	Secret In Their Eyes	246	1,221	+396.3%	+18.3%
8	Daddy's Home	--	1,102	--	+51.6%
9	Joy	2,908	948	-67.4%	--
10	The Little Prince	2,817	911	-67.7%	+32.6%

Decent hold for Star Wars 7. Inflated drop for Sherlock. Meh for Ip Man 3. Not bad of an increase for The Revenant. Anniversary had a nice hold.

At 2 PM, less than 500 admissions separates the top 4. Both Ip Man 3 and The Revenant have caught up to Star Wars 7 and are hot on Sherlock's heels.

 

[TigerPaw]

On 1/9/2016 at 2:26 PM, Bluebomb said:

 

By the way, have you seen Ip Man 3? What did you think of it?

 

Honest opinion? =) By the tone of your question, I assumed you have watched it. Haha.

The first time I caught it was at 930pm on 23rd December, Singapore Cinemas suddenly started selling tickets on 23rd 2pm for sneak preview shows on the same night. For the whole weekend of 23rd to 27th, almost every show was sold out.. You literally had to book tickets online because you will need to queue for a long time for tickets for front row, Ip Man 3 was selling like hot cakes.

Spoiler

My true opinion after watching it the first time was a little disappointing, because I have rewatched Ip Man 1 and 2 so many times and just wasn't that used to Yuen Woo Ping choreography(to me, The Grandmaster/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon were boring movies but Iron Monkey was incredible). Plot wise may seem a little messy...

But after the movie the Singapore version had NG behind-the-scenes funny scenes and I remembered the theater applauded and people were left smiling and laughing. I reached home, searched on twitter and found extremely positive reviews everywhere with people claiming it is the best of the 3 movies. My own family members, who watched with me, loved it. I have friends who watched it twice or more...

So I headed back to the cinema and I tried to appreciate the movie again and really observed every scene and found out how many details and Easter Eggs I missed out, and spoke to some insiders I know about the movie. And I came out with this thread in a Singapore forum which garnered over 5000 views. 

Spoiler

You should take a look, I dissected the "Butterfly Scene", "Mike Tyson 3minutes" and "Be-Like-Water" etc.

Therefore the general conclusion is that I was a little disappointed with it the first time but it was mainly because of the Hype of the previous 2 and how well done they were, if this was a movie on its own...it is probably one of the best Hong Kong Movies(better than Infernal Affairs 2 and 3). But upon repeated viewings, I find that it was better than Ip Man 2, but slightly weaker than Ip Man 1 due to some plot holes and narration issues(which may be mainly caused by BLE lawsuit causing Pegasus to have a last minute script editing). 

This movie will appeal more to females than males, compared to 1 and 2, and my female friends loved it much more than the previous instalments.... and as you can see movies like Apple of My Eye, Our Times with huge emotional appeals to females tend to have huge box office success because female fans seem to be more loyal and open to repeated viewings. =) 


EDIT: MY thread in the other forum has been merged, so I will be placing the contents here, it is very long. =/
 

Spoiler

Ip Man 3 is the deepest of all Ip Man movies.

 

Ip Man 3 is a movie which deserves repeated viewings to really understand/appreciate it. So after reading this, you might want to head back to the theater and try to grab all these details!

 

So i received a lot of message on other boards, on IMDB and twitter about Ip Man 3. ALOT of people, especially in Hong Kong and Malaysia said it was the best Ip Man movie out of the 3. Do I agree? I felt it was a great movie, better than Ip Man 2. But maybe on par, or maybe lose to Ip Man 1 abit.

 

So leave now, if you don't want any spoilers or hints. The movie is much more emotional and chim than any other Ip Man movies, so to fully understand it, you can read this post. Don't review or comment before you understand okay. =)

 

Before the movie, if you guys watched the trailer, you might think Mike Tyson is the main villain. However just like Dark Knight rises, the story of Ip Man 3 goes beyond the trailer. We are not looking at Iron Man 2 or Averages: Age of ultron where the trailer pretty much tells us the whole movie.

 

We are looking at a trailer which draws us into the cinema, and the story is something else.. a nodd to Christopher Nolan, or even Star Wars. (Director Wilson Yip is fan of Chris Nolan, Donnie is in Star Wars Rogue One). Max Zhang is Talia Al Ghul, real villian of the movie. Mike Tyson is merely just bane, a monster of destruction who is not the main villain.

 

 

First Scene --> The Butterfly, this was a hint at the WHOLE story. In chinese mythology, a Moth/Butterfly is a returning spirit of a love one. And this actually is "the ending", because timeline wise it is the latest and it just means his wife has passed and is returning to listen to him hit the wooden dummy one last time.

 

And another thing observed by another person from Hardwarezone, the Butterfly is a symbol of Wing Chun, because Ip Man calls his knives the "Butterfly Knives", which is known to all wing chun practitioners today.

 

Bruce Lee Scene -->

Cigarettes --> Just like the scene at night, outside of the school, Ip Man does not "really" smoke. He is wasting his cigarettes and throwing them to Bruce because this story wants to show how Ip Man has changed to become a family man, and will stop his smoking addiction(opium in real life) for his family. Noticed how Ip Man NEVER... even takes out his cigarettes infront of his family?

 

Even in Ip man 1, he smokes after the dinner when his wife and Ip Chun was in the room.

 

 

"Be Like Water" --> Bruce's famous quote is being hint here --> "You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow and it can crash. Be like water my friend."

 

When Ip Man threw the water at Bruce, it was a hint at his famous quote, but not just that. It teachs Bruce to be adaptable, not just try and KICK the water, but adaptability of sometimes dodge instead of just being "rash" and always being head-strong and stubborn. This may be a reason why he didn't accept Bruce as his student then.

 

At last Bruce Lee came out with Jeet-Kune-Do which is known for its adaptability, haha.

 

 

"One Inch Punch" --> Some complain the last fight scene.. the ending punch was not good enough. But if you look closely, it resembles the "One-inch punch" which Bruce Lee was known for. A punch which looks short and powerless, but is capable of dismantling an opponent. If you didn't get the hint, you probably will think the finish is not good, but we all know how powerful the one-inch punch is.. right? =)

 

It actually shows that Ip Man already knew about such a technique and may be the one who influenced and pass on this to Bruce Lee, who made that punch famous to the whole world.

 

"Cha Cha Champion"--> Other than being a great martial artist, Bruce Lee is also a Cha Cha Champion in Hong Kong ,that is why in the movie he teachs Yip Mun how to dance, in order to get Yip Mun to teach him Wing Chun. A nod to Bruce's dancing ability

 

 

3 Minutes Fight with Tyson-->Just like Ip Man 2 against Sammo, Ip Man 3 against Tyson was a tie. And just like against Sammo with a joss stick as timer, Tyson's fight had a time limit which is 3 minutes, measured by an alarm clock instead(Western). Subtle but a tribute to that Table Fight Scene in Ip Man 2.

 

So why 3 minutes? Because Mike Tyson in his prime is known for his First Round Knock-out in boxing! And guess how long is 1 round in boxing? 3 mins!

 

Therefore "Frankie" is literally saying "try to get past 1 round with me". =) Which is a tribute to Mike Tyson's real power and how he KOs people in 1 round in real life.

 

New Ballon -->Mentioned by many others, the Balloon string of Tyson's daughter is cut during his fight with Yip Mun.. After the fight, Tyson's daughter ask him to retrieve it back for him, in which he replied "Don't worry, I will get you a new one, let it go." He is actually saying that he will let Yip Mun go, and will find another property instead of hell-bent going for the school property, letting the matter to rest. =)

 

Role Model for Children--> Like what Yip Mun said to Fei Bo during the movie, the children see what we are doing and hence we should be role model. At the last scene, when Donnie tells Zhang Jin; "The most important are the people around you", both Zhang Feng and Ye Zheng were at the staircase watching, listening and being inspired.

 

Wing Chun The scene where the 2 children fight. "Yong Chun, Zhang Feng" followed by "Yong Chun, Ye Zheng", is echoed at final fight where both adults said "Yong Chun, Zhang Tian Zhi", and "Yong Chun, Ye Wen". A nod to the earlier children fight.

 

 

Yuen Woo Ping's choreography details

For those who don't know, Yuen Woo Ping took over Sammo Hung as the fight choreographer for Ip Man 3. Sammo Hung went to work on Monkey King 2(which pays him a lot and I am disappointed with him), so Yuen Woo Ping took up the chance to work with his protege Donnie Yen.

 

If you guys don't know Yuen Woo Ping, maybe you guys have watched "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", "Matrix", "Iron Money" and "Kill Bill"? He is a world class martial arts choegraphy who brought Donnie into the business at age 18.

 

 

While some are so used to Sammo Hung's style, Yuen Woo Ping focuses on realistic, grounded work and beauty.

 

Ip Man 2 with Sammo Hung has a lot of string works, and many felt it was not as good as Ip Man.

 

Ip Man 3 focuses on realism, yet added another layer of choreography. This is an improvement over Ip Man 1 and 2.

 

Be it zooming into the cigarettes and the beauty of each kick by Bruce.

 

Be it the water landing on the floor,and disperse upon touching the floor.

 

Be it Mike Tyson breaking the window and the glass breaks the balloon's string.

 

Be it Zhang Jin attacking the Master, breaking his arm, and one scene involves in throwing an umbrella through the door like an arrow

 

Be it Donnie changing stance to fight Mike, focusing on legs.

 

Be it how the knife "clinging" sound was too high pitch and flinch the 2 children.

 

Be it the light reflecting off the knives on Donnie and Jin's faces.

 

All these actions and details... you just know its Yuen Woo Ping, and many don't like weapons fight and hence may find them not as good. But there are ALOT of fight scenes in Ip Man 3.

 

Bruce Lee kicking cigarettes

Ip Man vs School bullies and calling the police

Mass fight in sch

mass fight at shipyard

King-sang breaking arm of martial arts master

King-sang vs ip man

ip man vs mike tyson

ipman vs thai fighter

King-sang vs various masters

 

If there are anything I missed out, please do let me know. I will try to observe and dissect.

 

All of subtle hints you must understand not as a martial arts fan, but need some general knowledge about martial arts and history.

 

All in all, the movie may not please all critics and fans who ONLY loves hard-hitting action, but if you are looking at an Ip Man movie with Great action, great humour and that sense of touch with a love story, then Ip Man 3 is great.

 

GV reviews, IMDB ratings, Insing reviews. So many people find it amazing. There are people who tell me it is the BEST Ip Man film, I myself find it better than Ip Man 2 and on par with the first Ip Man.

 

So for people who didn't understand the movie, I hope this thread can allow you to understand more! And really appreciate Ip Man 3. Cheers! =)

 

 

 

PS: Ip Man 3 wanted to shift more focus on Bruce Lee, but Bruce Lee Estate(His daughter and wife) sued Peagasus Motion Pictures and limited Lee's screen time, therefore one might wonder why is "Bruce Lee' just a cameo.

Bruce Lee's Screen Time -->If anyone doesn't understand why Bruce Lee has no fight scenes, it is because Bruce Lee Estate (Shannon Lee and Linda Lee) sued Pegasus Motion pictures, because they want a huge cut from the profit, so no CGI, no Likeness, no full name of "Lee Xiao Long", hence in the movie he is called Xiao Long, and no FIGHT SCENES.

Pegasus Motion Pictures did their best, they gave him a scene of kicking cigarettes and water to pay tribute to him/

 

If you want to know how greedy Linda Lee and Shannon Lee are, read this:

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/a...family-divided

 So yup, here you have it. They did whatever they could with Bruce Lee's character and it turned out great.

 

Robert Lee(bro of bruce Lee) and Ip Chun(Son of Yip Mun) were brought in as script consultants to ensure accuracies and consistencies.

What do you think? And take a look at that dissection i posted. =)
 

Edited January 10, 2016 by TigerPaw

[Bluebomb]

I will discuss the movie in more detail later, TigerPaw. In the meantime, did you see my review of Ip Man 3 posted above?

 

	Saturday				January 9
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	33,595	17,304	-48.5%	+43.9%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	27,116	15,612	-42.4%	+64.0%
3	The Revenant	--	15,607	--	+78.6%
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	23,884	11,716	-50.9%	+67.3%
5	Anniversary	12,903	7,665	-40.6%	+37.4%
6	Secret In Their Eyes	--	4,045	--	+41.9%
7	Daddy's Home	--	3,970	--	+40.0%
8	Ten Years	1,660	2,963	+78.5%	+42.9%
9	The Little Prince	6,740	2,922	-56.6%	+94.0%
10	The 33	--	2,443	--	+62.6%

Not impressed with that hold for Ip Man 3. Great hold for Sherlock considering last Saturday had huge pre-sales rush factor. Great increase for Revenant. Pretty bad for Star Wars. Anniversary did alright.

 

	Weekend Projections			January 7
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Ip Man 3	$600,000	-63.9%	$6,235,000
2	The Revenant	$525,000		$525,000
3	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	$470,000	-4.1%	$1,220,000
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$370,000	-72.6%	$10,010,000
5	Anniversary	$275,000	-50.5%	$2,005,000

This turned out to be a pretty boring weekend. Ip Man 3 had its first taste of failure this week with it falling over 60%. The film had impressive weekend and daily holds up till this weekend but it lacked the followup required for it to pass 9m or 10m. Very good opening for The Revenant. Had it opened on a Thursday, it would have won the weekend over Ip Man 3. Very good hold for Sherlock though pre-sales will start to slow down soon. Horrible hold for Star Wars 7 but it does pass 10m. Anniversary broke through 2m with a decent hold.

 

Edited January 9, 2016 by Bluebomb

[TigerPaw]

5 hours ago, Bluebomb said:

I will discuss the movie in more detail later, TigerPaw. In the meantime, did you see my review of Ip Man 3 posted above?

 

 

Missed the hyperlink earlier on, thought you forgot to post it. haha. Just saw it, great review. You appreciate plot details and information much better than me while I watched it for the first time. =)

Great quality film, after I re-watched it... But with China only opening in March, Piracy is going to kill it.

US's no of theaters is also worrying... http://www.wellgousa.com/theatrical/ipman3
40+ screens in North America, excluding Canada. Compared to 800+ for The Grandmaster, according to Box Office Mojo. 

Therefore we might be seeing the last of its success in Taiwan, HK, Singapore and Malaysia.. of course I hope I am wrong.

[Bluebomb]

On 1/9/2016 at 9:36 PM, TigerPaw said:

Therefore the general conclusion is that I was a little disappointed with it the first time but it was mainly because of the Hype of the previous 2 and how well done they were, if this was a movie on its own...it is probably one of the best Hong Kong Movies(better than Infernal Affairs 2 and 3). But upon repeated viewings, I find that it was better than Ip Man 2, but slightly weaker than Ip Man 1 due to some plot holes and narration issues(which may be mainly caused by BLE lawsuit causing Pegasus to have a last minute script editing). 

This movie will appeal more to females than males, compared to 1 and 2, and my female friends loved it much more than the previous instalments.... and as you can see movies like Apple of My Eye, Our Times with huge emotional appeals to females tend to have huge box office success because female fans seem to be more loyal and open to repeated viewings. =) 

EDIT: MY thread in the other forum has been merged, so I will be placing the contents here, it is very long. =/
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Ip Man 3 is the deepest of all Ip Man movies.

 

Ip Man 3 is a movie which deserves repeated viewings to really understand/appreciate it. So after reading this, you might want to head back to the theater and try to grab all these details!

 

So i received a lot of message on other boards, on IMDB and twitter about Ip Man 3. ALOT of people, especially in Hong Kong and Malaysia said it was the best Ip Man movie out of the 3. Do I agree? I felt it was a great movie, better than Ip Man 2. But maybe on par, or maybe lose to Ip Man 1 abit.

 

So leave now, if you don't want any spoilers or hints. The movie is much more emotional and chim than any other Ip Man movies, so to fully understand it, you can read this post. Don't review or comment before you understand okay. =)

 

Before the movie, if you guys watched the trailer, you might think Mike Tyson is the main villain. However just like Dark Knight rises, the story of Ip Man 3 goes beyond the trailer. We are not looking at Iron Man 2 or Averages: Age of ultron where the trailer pretty much tells us the whole movie.

 

We are looking at a trailer which draws us into the cinema, and the story is something else.. a nodd to Christopher Nolan, or even Star Wars. (Director Wilson Yip is fan of Chris Nolan, Donnie is in Star Wars Rogue One). Max Zhang is Talia Al Ghul, real villian of the movie. Mike Tyson is merely just bane, a monster of destruction who is not the main villain.

 

 

First Scene --> The Butterfly, this was a hint at the WHOLE story. In chinese mythology, a Moth/Butterfly is a returning spirit of a love one. And this actually is "the ending", because timeline wise it is the latest and it just means his wife has passed and is returning to listen to him hit the wooden dummy one last time.

 

And another thing observed by another person from Hardwarezone, the Butterfly is a symbol of Wing Chun, because Ip Man calls his knives the "Butterfly Knives", which is known to all wing chun practitioners today.

 

Bruce Lee Scene -->

Cigarettes --> Just like the scene at night, outside of the school, Ip Man does not "really" smoke. He is wasting his cigarettes and throwing them to Bruce because this story wants to show how Ip Man has changed to become a family man, and will stop his smoking addiction(opium in real life) for his family. Noticed how Ip Man NEVER... even takes out his cigarettes infront of his family?

 

Even in Ip man 1, he smokes after the dinner when his wife and Ip Chun was in the room.

 

 

"Be Like Water" --> Bruce's famous quote is being hint here --> "You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow and it can crash. Be like water my friend."

 

When Ip Man threw the water at Bruce, it was a hint at his famous quote, but not just that. It teachs Bruce to be adaptable, not just try and KICK the water, but adaptability of sometimes dodge instead of just being "rash" and always being head-strong and stubborn. This may be a reason why he didn't accept Bruce as his student then.

 

At last Bruce Lee came out with Jeet-Kune-Do which is known for its adaptability, haha.

 

 

"One Inch Punch" --> Some complain the last fight scene.. the ending punch was not good enough. But if you look closely, it resembles the "One-inch punch" which Bruce Lee was known for. A punch which looks short and powerless, but is capable of dismantling an opponent. If you didn't get the hint, you probably will think the finish is not good, but we all know how powerful the one-inch punch is.. right? =)

 

It actually shows that Ip Man already knew about such a technique and may be the one who influenced and pass on this to Bruce Lee, who made that punch famous to the whole world.

 

"Cha Cha Champion"--> Other than being a great martial artist, Bruce Lee is also a Cha Cha Champion in Hong Kong ,that is why in the movie he teachs Yip Mun how to dance, in order to get Yip Mun to teach him Wing Chun. A nod to Bruce's dancing ability

 

 

3 Minutes Fight with Tyson-->Just like Ip Man 2 against Sammo, Ip Man 3 against Tyson was a tie. And just like against Sammo with a joss stick as timer, Tyson's fight had a time limit which is 3 minutes, measured by an alarm clock instead(Western). Subtle but a tribute to that Table Fight Scene in Ip Man 2.

 

So why 3 minutes? Because Mike Tyson in his prime is known for his First Round Knock-out in boxing! And guess how long is 1 round in boxing? 3 mins!

 

Therefore "Frankie" is literally saying "try to get past 1 round with me". =) Which is a tribute to Mike Tyson's real power and how he KOs people in 1 round in real life.

 

New Ballon -->Mentioned by many others, the Balloon string of Tyson's daughter is cut during his fight with Yip Mun.. After the fight, Tyson's daughter ask him to retrieve it back for him, in which he replied "Don't worry, I will get you a new one, let it go." He is actually saying that he will let Yip Mun go, and will find another property instead of hell-bent going for the school property, letting the matter to rest. =)

 

Role Model for Children--> Like what Yip Mun said to Fei Bo during the movie, the children see what we are doing and hence we should be role model. At the last scene, when Donnie tells Zhang Jin; "The most important are the people around you", both Zhang Feng and Ye Zheng were at the staircase watching, listening and being inspired.

 

Wing Chun The scene where the 2 children fight. "Yong Chun, Zhang Feng" followed by "Yong Chun, Ye Zheng", is echoed at final fight where both adults said "Yong Chun, Zhang Tian Zhi", and "Yong Chun, Ye Wen". A nod to the earlier children fight.

 

 

Yuen Woo Ping's choreography details

For those who don't know, Yuen Woo Ping took over Sammo Hung as the fight choreographer for Ip Man 3. Sammo Hung went to work on Monkey King 2(which pays him a lot and I am disappointed with him), so Yuen Woo Ping took up the chance to work with his protege Donnie Yen.

 

If you guys don't know Yuen Woo Ping, maybe you guys have watched "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", "Matrix", "Iron Money" and "Kill Bill"? He is a world class martial arts choegraphy who brought Donnie into the business at age 18.

 

 

While some are so used to Sammo Hung's style, Yuen Woo Ping focuses on realistic, grounded work and beauty.

 

Ip Man 2 with Sammo Hung has a lot of string works, and many felt it was not as good as Ip Man.

 

Ip Man 3 focuses on realism, yet added another layer of choreography. This is an improvement over Ip Man 1 and 2.

 

Be it zooming into the cigarettes and the beauty of each kick by Bruce.

 

Be it the water landing on the floor,and disperse upon touching the floor.

 

Be it Mike Tyson breaking the window and the glass breaks the balloon's string.

 

Be it Zhang Jin attacking the Master, breaking his arm, and one scene involves in throwing an umbrella through the door like an arrow

 

Be it Donnie changing stance to fight Mike, focusing on legs.

 

Be it how the knife "clinging" sound was too high pitch and flinch the 2 children.

 

Be it the light reflecting off the knives on Donnie and Jin's faces.

 

All these actions and details... you just know its Yuen Woo Ping, and many don't like weapons fight and hence may find them not as good. But there are ALOT of fight scenes in Ip Man 3.

 

Bruce Lee kicking cigarettes

Ip Man vs School bullies and calling the police

Mass fight in sch

mass fight at shipyard

King-sang breaking arm of martial arts master

King-sang vs ip man

ip man vs mike tyson

ipman vs thai fighter

King-sang vs various masters

 

If there are anything I missed out, please do let me know. I will try to observe and dissect.

 

All of subtle hints you must understand not as a martial arts fan, but need some general knowledge about martial arts and history.

 

All in all, the movie may not please all critics and fans who ONLY loves hard-hitting action, but if you are looking at an Ip Man movie with Great action, great humour and that sense of touch with a love story, then Ip Man 3 is great.

 

GV reviews, IMDB ratings, Insing reviews. So many people find it amazing. There are people who tell me it is the BEST Ip Man film, I myself find it better than Ip Man 2 and on par with the first Ip Man.

 

So for people who didn't understand the movie, I hope this thread can allow you to understand more! And really appreciate Ip Man 3. Cheers! =)

 

 

 

PS: Ip Man 3 wanted to shift more focus on Bruce Lee, but Bruce Lee Estate(His daughter and wife) sued Peagasus Motion Pictures and limited Lee's screen time, therefore one might wonder why is "Bruce Lee' just a cameo.

Bruce Lee's Screen Time -->If anyone doesn't understand why Bruce Lee has no fight scenes, it is because Bruce Lee Estate (Shannon Lee and Linda Lee) sued Pegasus Motion pictures, because they want a huge cut from the profit, so no CGI, no Likeness, no full name of "Lee Xiao Long", hence in the movie he is called Xiao Long, and no FIGHT SCENES.

Pegasus Motion Pictures did their best, they gave him a scene of kicking cigarettes and water to pay tribute to him/

 

If you want to know how greedy Linda Lee and Shannon Lee are, read this:

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/a...family-divided

 So yup, here you have it. They did whatever they could with Bruce Lee's character and it turned out great.

 

Robert Lee(bro of bruce Lee) and Ip Chun(Son of Yip Mun) were brought in as script consultants to ensure accuracies and consistencies.

What do you think? And take a look at that dissection i posted. =)
 

 

Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen Ip Man 3. You have been warned.

Spoiler

I disagree with your assessment on Ip Man 3 that it is slightly weaker than Ip Man due to plot holes. It doesn't strive to be a complete film. Ip Man 3 tackles the challenge of being the finale of a trilogy by going deeper into the life of Ip Man. I feel that Edmond Wong deliberately wrote the script this way because he wanted us to appreciate Ip Man, the character who he was and who he became from the first film to this one, and focus less on plot holes and the like. Like I told James Marsh, the plot holes such as how Frank came into power or expanding his motivations on why he wanted the school so much or how the Thai fighter found Ip Man so fast are irrelevant. The movie is a reflection of our own lives through Ip Man's life and the message that I took away from the film is that it is telling us to enjoy life with your family because you never know what will happen to them.

 

The movie only glimpses at Ip Man's life within less than a year but it says a lot about his character, his beliefs, his values and his virtues. Those that criticize the film because of plot holes are missing the true point of this film. The writer asks you to view the film through emotion and be less cerebral. He knows that by creating the film this way that plot holes are bound to happen. They want you to focus more on Ip Man rather than the side characters. That's why Mike Tyson was not in it very much. The less you spend on the pointless details and the more you get into Ip Man's life is when you can really sit back and truly appreciate the beauty of Ip Man 3.

 

	Sunday adm.	(so far)			January 10
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	11,557	6,740	-41.7%	+0.9%
2	The Revenant	--	6,484	--	+34.6%
3	Ip Man 3	10,616	5,767	-45.7%	+16.2%
4	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	13,110	5,308	-59.5%	-7.1%
5	Anniversary	3,037	2,195	-27.7%	+3.5%
6	Ten Years	822	2,039	+148.1%	+17.8%
7	The Little Prince	2,580	1,326	-48.6%	+45.6%
8	Secret In Their Eyes	204	1,282	+528.4%	+5.0%
9	Daddy's Home	--	1,210	--	+9.8%
10	The Peanuts Movie	4,031	1,099	-72.7%	--

Decent hold for Star Wars. Awesome for Revenant. Much better for Ip Man 3. Not very good for Sherlock. Excellent hold for Anniversary. Strong for Ten Years.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Bluebomb

[TigerPaw]

1 hour ago, Bluebomb said:

Tiger, you should put the

  Reveal hidden contents

'Butterfly Scene', 'Mike Tyson 3 minutes' and 'Be Like Water' line

in spoiler tags because a lot of my readers are from overseas where Ip Man 3 has not yet been released.

 

Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen Ip Man 3. You have been warned.

  Reveal hidden contents

I disagree with your assessment on Ip Man 3 that it is slightly weaker than Ip Man due to plot holes. It doesn't strive to be a complete film. Ip Man 3 tackles the challenge of being the finale of a trilogy by going deeper into the life of Ip Man. I feel that Edmond Wong deliberately wrote the script this way because he wanted us to appreciate Ip Man, the character who he was and who he became from the first film to this one, and focus less on plot holes and the like. Like I told James Marsh, the plot holes such as how Frank came into power or expanding his motivations on why he wanted the school so much or how the Thai fighter found Ip Man so fast are irrelevant. The movie is a reflection of our own lives through Ip Man's life and the message that I took away from the film is that it is telling us to enjoy life with your family because you never know what will happen to them.

 

The movie only glimpses at Ip Man's life within less than a year but it says a lot about his character, his beliefs, his values and his virtues. Those that criticize the film because of plot holes are missing the true point of this film. The writer asks you to view the film through emotion and be less cerebral. He knows that by creating the film this way that plot holes are bound to happen. They want you to focus more on Ip Man rather than the side characters. That's why Mike Tyson was not in it very much. The less you spend on the pointless details and the more you get into Ip Man's life is when you can really sit back and truly appreciate the beauty of Ip Man 3.

 

 

Okay, I placed the spoilers tag already, you might want to edit your post and edit/remove my quotes. =)

Wow, good point of view, never really thought of it this way. But I give credit to Edmond Wong, who seems to have his faith rewarded because he is posting on Facebook and Weibo almost daily about the box office success of Ip Man 3 in HK, TW, Msia and Singapore. In fact he commented on one of my FB posts and mentioned about the disappointment they have over the China distributor's decision for delaying the movie to March 2016. Props to Wilson Yip's direction and Donnie Yen's performance, I wouldn't be surprise if Donnie Yen gets nominated for Best Actor at the HK Film awards just like in Ip Man(2008).

Both Ip Man and Ip Man 2 won best action choreography, wonder whether Yuen Woo Ping will win it for Ip Man 3... not forgetting Ip Man won Best Picture, that was an awesome moment where everyone went on stage.

To be honest, I haven't been a huge fan of James Marsh's reviews. If my memory serves me right, he was one of the rare reviewers who claimed Rise of the Legend was better than Kung Fu Jungle last year, and I was disappointed watching Rise of the Legend, while Kung Fu Jungle had so much heart and sincerity from Director Teddy Chan. Jame's review on Ip Man 3 is still mostly positive though, but I guess the most important is audience reaction and word of mouth. I mean the general consensus among fans is that Ip Man 3 is a superb movie, better than 2, on par with 1 and there are some who claim it is the best of the trilogy, and I know many people who are watching it more than once in the theaters. =) 

While Ip Man 3 is a great Hong Kong Film, and can represent Asia to open up the eyes of many foreigners, the truth is that the overseas distributors are pale in comparsion to the film's quality. Well Go USA handles North America distribution, and their website currently has 40+ theaters, despite Mike Tyson being part of the movie...I was expecting at least 400...(Grandmaster had 800, Iron Monkey had 1200+ 8 years after its HK release) Nordic countries and Europe regions are worse, some are only expecting DVD releases, and only 2 theaters in whole of Ireland. There are people in Helsinki, Finland and in India and all over the world on Facebook and Twitter asking about Ip Man 3's release date.... there is a huge hype but the Distributor is unable to deliver. 

[Bluebomb]

9 hours ago, TigerPaw said:

 

Okay, I placed the spoilers tag already, you might want to edit your post and edit/remove my quotes. =)

Wow, good point of view, never really thought of it this way. But I give credit to Edmond Wong, who seems to have his faith rewarded because he is posting on Facebook and Weibo almost daily about the box office success of Ip Man 3 in HK, TW, Msia and Singapore. In fact he commented on one of my FB posts and mentioned about the disappointment they have over the China distributor's decision for delaying the movie to March 2016. Props to Wilson Yip's direction and Donnie Yen's performance, I wouldn't be surprise if Donnie Yen gets nominated for Best Actor at the HK Film awards just like in Ip Man(2008).

Both Ip Man and Ip Man 2 won best action choreography, wonder whether Yuen Woo Ping will win it for Ip Man 3... not forgetting Ip Man won Best Picture, that was an awesome moment where everyone went on stage.

To be honest, I haven't been a huge fan of James Marsh's reviews. If my memory serves me right, he was one of the rare reviewers who claimed Rise of the Legend was better than Kung Fu Jungle last year, and I was disappointed watching Rise of the Legend, while Kung Fu Jungle had so much heart and sincerity from Director Teddy Chan. Jame's review on Ip Man 3 is still mostly positive though, but I guess the most important is audience reaction and word of mouth. I mean the general consensus among fans is that Ip Man 3 is a superb movie, better than 2, on par with 1 and there are some who claim it is the best of the trilogy, and I know many people who are watching it more than once in the theaters. =) 

While Ip Man 3 is a great Hong Kong Film, and can represent Asia to open up the eyes of many foreigners, the truth is that the overseas distributors are pale in comparsion to the film's quality. Well Go USA handles North America distribution, and their website currently has 40+ theaters, despite Mike Tyson being part of the movie...I was expecting at least 400...(Grandmaster had 800, Iron Monkey had 1200+ 8 years after its HK release) Nordic countries and Europe regions are worse, some are only expecting DVD releases, and only 2 theaters in whole of Ireland. There are people in Helsinki, Finland and in India and all over the world on Facebook and Twitter asking about Ip Man 3's release date.... there is a huge hype but the Distributor is unable to deliver. 

Oh, can you pass me the links to his facebook and weibo?

 

I'm not worried about the distribution in the US. Ip Man 2 only got a release in 20 theaters. Mike Tyson is not really that popular anymore. The Grandmaster had 800 because Wong Kar Wai is a big draw in North America. I'm not sure why Iron Monkey had a big release in the US but Ip Man is not really that big of a franchise outside Asia. Yeah, the studio and the distributor are quite small even in HK but they got a movie to 6m. Yes, if they had the marketing of Disney, then this could have really gone over 9m or 10m IMO but my predictions for both Star Wars 7 and Ip Man 3 were not far off. Sure, Star Wars 7 had exceptionally high ticket prices but is a disappointment in admissions. It's lucky that Disney's pricing and their tactics to block Ip Man 3 at UA during Christmas week worked because it would not have gotten to 10m otherwise. You only need to look at the drops to understand why. Ip Man 3 on the other hand is a huge hit because it is a great movie. Yes, I know that Ip Man 2 made 5.5m back in 2010 but the studio/distributor are much smaller than Newport who oversaw the first 2 Ip Man films in distribution. Marketing could have been much bigger but the studio/distributor do not have the influence to persuade those theater chain owners into giving them the biggest screen over Star Wars 7. Even up to January 3, UA theaters were still playing Star Wars 7 on the big screen because they were locked in with their contractual agreement. That has never happened before. 1 week maybe but 3 weeks? Ip Man 3 was really hampered by UA + the HK Island trio (Palace IFC, Pacific Place, Cyberport) and that gave Star Wars a 13-14k seat advantage. Essentially, most of Ip Man's gross have come from grassroots marketing by the public.

 

	Sunday				January 10
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	WKD % chg	QD % chg
1	Ip Man 3	30,453	17,315	-43.1%	+0.1%
2	The Revenant	--	16,009	--	+2.6%
3	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	23,770	12,830	-46.0%	-17.8%
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	20,166	11,122	-44.8%	-5.1%
5	Anniversary	11,253	6,894	-38.7%	-10.1%
6	Daddy's Home	--	3,722	--	-6.2%
7	Secret In Their Eyes	--	3,518	--	-13.0%
8	The Little Prince	6,658	3,279	-50.8%	+12.2%
9	Ten Years	1,895	3,244	+71.2%	+9.5%
10	The 33	--	2,732	--	+11.8%

After yesterday's somewhat weak hold for Ip Man 3, it rebounded today and was the only holdover of the top 5 to increase from Saturday. The Revenant barely increased from yesterday after its Sunday pre-sales spiked by 1,600 from Saturday. WOM might have something to do with it. It went from a high of 4.4 to now a 3.9/5. GA does not seem to be thrilled with the movie so drops might not be all that great in the coming weeks. We will see. Sherlock had a terrible Sunday drop from Saturday. Although it fell hard last Sunday from last Saturday as well, that one had more to do with opening on a Saturday than Sunday not being favorable toward it. I think the rush has trailed off. Star Wars had an OK hold. Good hold for Anniversary. Daddy's Home finally passed Secret in Their Eyes in admissions on Sunday.
 

	Weekend adm.			Jan 7-10
Rank	Movie	LW	TW	% chg
1	Ip Man 3	153,036	55,873	-63.5%
2	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	50,886	44,295	-13.0%
3	The Revenant	--	40,355	--
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	99,285	35,587	-64.2%
5	Anniversary	60,675	25,332	-58.2%
6	Secret In Their Eyes	--	13,081	--
7	Daddy's Home	--	12,672	--
8	Ten Years	6,220	9,924	+59.5%
9	The Little Prince	33,239	9,100	-72.6%
10	The 33	--	8,445	--

 

	Weekend Estimates			January 7
Rank	Movie	TW	% chg	Total
1	Ip Man 3	$610,000	-63.3%	$6,245,000
2	The Revenant	$525,000		$525,000
3	Sherlock: The Abominable Bride	$460,000	-6.1%	$1,210,000
4	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$365,000	-73.0%	$10,005,000
5	Anniversary	$275,000	-50.5%	$2,005,000

This was a really tough weekend for most wide holdovers.

Ip Man 3 did not do much to make a case for 9m or 10m. At this point, Ip Man 3 will need to have Avatar style drops the next 3 weekends to make 8m. Otherwise I still see 7m as a lock.

The Revenant had a pretty good opening weekend. Its Sunday had some slight issues that could play into next weekend and beyond. Right now, I will say it gets to around 1.8m total.

Sherlock had a nice hold this weekend. The worry was that the frenzy would stop and it would slow down dramatically but it played very well up until Sunday. The wheels came off and it dropped 17% from Saturday which could mean that the rush factor is over.

Star Wars 7 had a terrible hold. Its run has been mostly unspectacular and I really underestimated how much high ticket sales inflated its gross. In admissions though, it is a disappointment but it becomes the 4th film this year to hit 10m after Avengers 2, Jurassic World and Minions. Disney's throttling tactics proved valuable as it allowed Star Wars to hit 10m. Expect the sequel to decrease massively even with Donnie Yen.

Anniversary had a decent hold this weekend. It also passes 2m, 2x more than the original made in 2006.

Below the top 5, Daddy's Home had trouble drawing people in despite the Mark Wahlberg/Will Ferrell duo returning to the big screen. It opened with an estimated $170,000 and HK is the 3rd lowest Asian opening for it. Opening weekend reviews stand at 4.0.

Secret in Their Eyes was a disaster. Reviewers had little praise for the film and it only got a 3.7 from users. It was only able to achieve a $120,000 weekend, slightly behind Taiwan's opening.

[TigerPaw]

13 hours ago, Bluebomb said:

Oh, can you pass me the links to his facebook and weibo?

 

I'm not worried about the distribution in the US. Ip Man 2 only got a release in 20 theaters. Mike Tyson is not really that popular anymore. The Grandmaster had 800 because Wong Kar Wai is a big draw in North America. I'm not sure why Iron Monkey had a big release in the US but Ip Man is not really that big of a franchise outside Asia. Yeah, the studio and the distributor are quite small even in HK but they got a movie to 6m. Yes, if they had the marketing of Disney, then this could have really gone over 9m or 10m IMO but my predictions for both Star Wars 7 and Ip Man 3 were not far off. Sure, Star Wars 7 had exceptionally high ticket prices but is a disappointment in admissions. It's lucky that Disney's pricing and their tactics to block Ip Man 3 at UA during Christmas week worked because it would not have gotten to 10m otherwise. You only need to look at the drops to understand why. Ip Man 3 on the other hand is a huge hit because it is a great movie. Yes, I know that Ip Man 2 made 5.5m back in 2010 but the studio/distributor are much smaller than Newport who oversaw the first 2 Ip Man films in distribution. Marketing could have been much bigger but the studio/distributor do not have the influence to persuade those theater chain owners into giving them the biggest screen over Star Wars 7. Even up to January 3, UA theaters were still playing Star Wars 7 on the big screen because they were locked in with their contractual agreement. That has never happened before. 1 week maybe but 3 weeks? Ip Man 3 was really hampered by UA + the HK Island trio (Palace IFC, Pacific Place, Cyberport) and that gave Star Wars a 13-14k seat advantage. Essentially, most of Ip Man's gross have come from grassroots marketing by the public.

 

 

okay, sure! =) His Personal FB page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675436608&fref=ts
Weibo Page: http://weibo.com/wongec?from=feed&loc=at&nick=%E9%BB%83%E5%AD%90%E6%A1%93Edmond
My conversation with Edmund.


Anyway, you will be surprised. Ip Man 3 has a lot of viewers and followers outside of Asia! IP MAN 1 is IMDB one of the most rated Asian Movie(and also one of the highest rated, IMDB top 250). For Ip Man 3, Its popularity level was at 20+ on IMDB, and that has never happened for an Asian Movie! IP MAN 3 US trailer also appeared on IMDB most viewed trailler page a few weeks back!

Not a lot of people in US knows Wong Kar Wai, in fact they watched The Grandmaster because they know it is about Ip Man! You can use Google Trends, and just search the trends in North America, when The Grandmaster was released, people were searching about Ip Man(2008) and Donnie Yen more than Wong Kar Wai! Because everyone was comparing it to Wilson Yip's Ip Man films. Donnie's Google Trends in US is also at its peak in Jan 2011(Ip Man 2 was released there), and Oct 2013(Warriors Dream: Lee vs Yen video uploaded) and also right now before release of Ip Man 3(higher than announcement of Donnie's Rogue One participation). Ip Man is trending 4 times more than Grandmaster when it was released! So yup... Grandmaster has a wide release of 800 theaters but only earned 7million USD, which is considered not very well done. Lost in Hong Kong had like 30theaters and earned more than a million USD in North America.

Ip Man is huge there, my friend who is the creator of MAAC http://www.maactioncinema.com/ lives in North America and tells me that the number of people who has watched Ip Man 1 and 2 on Netflix is almost like 1/10 North Americans, and everyone knows Ip Man 3 is arriving. Donnie Yen is quite a big draw there, in fact when Netflix premiered Kung Fu Jungle last year, it was one of the most viewed movies on Netflix other than Netflix's original series!
 

So the demand for Ip Man 3 overseas is really much higer than you thought. =) 

Edited January 11, 2016 by TigerPaw

[Bluebomb]

6 hours ago, TigerPaw said:

okay, sure! =) His Personal FB page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675436608&fref=ts
Weibo Page: http://weibo.com/wongec?from=feed&loc=at&nick=%E9%BB%83%E5%AD%90%E6%A1%93Edmond
My conversation with Edmund.


Anyway, you will be surprised. Ip Man 3 has a lot of viewers and followers outside of Asia! IP MAN 1 is IMDB one of the most rated Asian Movie(and also one of the highest rated, IMDB top 250). For Ip Man 3, Its popularity level was at 20+ on IMDB, and that has never happened for an Asian Movie! IP MAN 3 US trailer also appeared on IMDB most viewed trailler page a few weeks back!

Not a lot of people in US knows Wong Kar Wai, in fact they watched The Grandmaster because they know it is about Ip Man! You can use Google Trends, and just search the trends in North America, when The Grandmaster was released, people were searching about Ip Man(2008) and Donnie Yen more than Wong Kar Wai! Because everyone was comparing it to Wilson Yip's Ip Man films. Donnie's Google Trends in US is also at its peak in Jan 2011(Ip Man 2 was released there), and Oct 2013(Warriors Dream: Lee vs Yen video uploaded) and also right now before release of Ip Man 3(higher than announcement of Donnie's Rogue One participation). Ip Man is trending 4 times more than Grandmaster when it was released! So yup... Grandmaster has a wide release of 800 theaters but only earned 7million USD, which is considered not very well done. Lost in Hong Kong had like 30theaters and earned more than a million USD in North America.

Ip Man is huge there, my friend who is the creator of MAAC http://www.maactioncinema.com/ lives in North America and tells me that the number of people who has watched Ip Man 1 and 2 on Netflix is almost like 1/10 North Americans, and everyone knows Ip Man 3 is arriving. Donnie Yen is quite a big draw there, in fact when Netflix premiered Kung Fu Jungle last year, it was one of the most viewed movies on Netflix other than Netflix's original series!
 

So the demand for Ip Man 3 overseas is really much higer than you thought. =) 

Thanks.

 

Wong Kar Wai has name recognition in N. America though but it could have gotten a higher theater count due to a mix of both.

 

January 7 Weekend Actuals

1. Ip Man 3 - about $580,000 (-65.0%)/$6,213,564
2. The Revenant - $453,072
3. Sherlock: An Abominable Bride - about $415,000 (-15.3%)/$1,165,043
4. Star Wars 7 - about $325,000 (-75.9%)/$9,967,592
5. Anniversary - about $290,000 (-47.7%)/$2,019,408
6. Daddy's Home - $168,284
7. Secret in Their Eyes - $142,394
Ten Years - $284,788
The Little Prince - $1,553,391
The 33 - $77,669

So Star Wars 7 doesn't pass 10m on Sunday. It'll have to wait one more day for it to happen.

 

[Bluebomb]

Ip Man 3 finished on top of The Revenant on Monday although theaters are banking on revived interest due to its 3 Golden Globe wins. The Revenant's score, however, is still dropping, down to a 3.8.

Actuals

Star Wars 7 - $10,035,667
Ip Man 3 - $6,221,564

So Star Wars did pass 10m on Sunday apparently. I'll wait for official confirmation from MPIA.

Early Thursday schedules

The 5th Wave and The Revenant are on top at almost all locations. Steve Jobs is also getting in on the action except for more rural areas. Ip Man 3 gets either half or full day showtimes at most locations. Anniversary will get 2 or 3 showings depending on which version theaters show (theaters are also showing the Director's cut version starting on Thursday). Sherlock gets cut or reduced to 1-3 showtimes. Star Wars 7 is axed or squished with only 1 showtime left on Thursday.

[Bluebomb]

The Revenant has done a bit better today after its Golden Globes triple win yesterday but with word of mouth at an all time low, I don't expect it to carry on for more than a week.

[TigerPaw]

2 hours ago, Bluebomb said:

The Revenant has done a bit better today after its Golden Globes triple win yesterday but with word of mouth at an all time low, I don't expect it to carry on for more than a week.

Revenant is behaving like The Grandmaster. Don't know Grandmaster's HK word of mouth.. but in Singapore, wom is pretty negative and worse... it was released months before HK film awards here. Malaysian distributors saw the screening of The Grandmaster and decided not to buy the rights.

Revenant will be in Singapore theaters on 4th Feb, CNY weekend against Vegas to Macau 3 and MK2 (no news on mermaid...weird). Wondering whether WOM from HK will spread here..

[Hoa Hoang]

Hi, I am from Vietnam and just want to log in to comment that Ip Man 3 is a phenomenon here . Its success really shocks a lot of people as most do not know Ip Man and what the film is about before it was released but now every one rushes to the cinema to see it ^^. Its success is based purely on grassroots marketing by the public on Facebook and word-of-mouth is nearly all time high. Very few films have reached that good WOM in Vietnam.  A lot of people search for Ip Man 1 and 2 online after they come back from their Ip Man 3 screening, myself included.

[efialtes76]

Welcome!

[TigerPaw]

China Ip Man 3 posters, confirm March 4th. The posters actually look incredible! wow.

[Bluebomb]

6 hours ago, Hoa Hoang said:

Hi, I am from Vietnam and just want to log in to comment that Ip Man 3 is a phenomenon here . Its success really shocks a lot of people as most do not know Ip Man and what the film is about before it was released but now every one rushes to the cinema to see it ^^. Its success is based purely on grassroots marketing by the public on Facebook and word-of-mouth is nearly all time high. Very few films have reached that good WOM in Vietnam.  A lot of people search for Ip Man 1 and 2 online after they come back from their Ip Man 3 screening, myself included.

Glad to see another Ip Man fan! It's nice to see it doing well in Vietnam too.

 

42 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

China Ip Man 3 posters, confirm March 4th. The posters actually look incredible! wow.

Those posters look great!