August 1 Weekend Estimates

Did The Smurfs 2 outsmurf the Wolverine?

August 1 Thursday Actuals

July 25 Thursday Actuals

July 18 Weekend Estimates

Did Pacific Rim crash in ahead of Monsters University at the finish line this weekend?

July 18 Thursday Actuals

Find out who took #1 on Thursday in this classic battle between Monsters vs. Aliens.

Ticket Pricing Strategies

Scheduling is one part of a film's success but for most people all it boils down to is how much are the tickets going to cost. Recent blockbusters have brought this question more into focus. Have studios gone too far or perhaps not enough when it comes to setting ticket prices?

July 11 Weekend Estimates

This weekend marks the return to form for Pixar with Monsters University and the biggest July weekend on record.

*REVISED* July 11 Thursday Actuals

Which scary film will viewers choose on this frightening weekend of summer?

Who will viewers choose: the horror film that blows your mind or the wannabe horror film for kids on the scariest weekend of this summer?

                            vs.                         

July 4 Weekend Estimates

July 4 Thursday Actuals

June 27 Weekend Estimates

June 27 Thursday Actuals

Will Man of Steel suffer from breakout-itis?

School is mostly out and here comes Epic to save the day. Oh and a superhero called the Man of Steel is heading into theaters too.

June 20 Weekend Estimates

June 20 Thursday Actuals

The Voice Australia Season 2, Episode 24 - And the winner...will be revealed once we get through all this filler.

Scaring children will be easy once we get out of college

The summer's most anticipated animated release will enter theaters this July. Monsters University, the prequel to Monsters Inc., is set to seize upon the Pixar name and its release date to make as much money as possible.

June 13 Weekend Estimates

June 13 Thursday Actuals

The Voice Australia Season 2, Episode 23 - And the winner is...going to be revealed next week.

8 semifinalists are left. Tonight, the 4 finalists will be revealed. This is The VOICE...Australia.

Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!

The last weekend of June is known to audiences as a big weekend. It is the start of the 2nd summer season where films see big returns. In the past 5 years, a film from this weekend has placed in the year end top 10 and 4/5 scored a top 5 hit. This year, Man of Steel is poised to extend the streak to 6 years due to Superman being a high profile film and with a little help from a well-oiled marketing strategy from WB.

June 6 Weekend Estimates

The Voice Australia Season 2, Episode 22 - Frontrunners falter

It's Monday night so that means The Voice Australia is on. No, not The Voice, The Voice Australia. 12 horses are left. Let's see who gets cut...

May 30 Weekend Estimates

The Voice Australia Season 2, Episode 21 - Just give Harrison the title now.

Producers, read this next sentence. Stop giving the pimp spot to the same singers over and over. I really like Harrison and he's going to win for sure but for goodness sake, give other singers a chance. The producers on The Voice Australia make the producers on American Idol and The Voice seem very fair with the way they draw up the performance order.

Now that I've spoiled who goes last (was there any doubt that he wouldn't get saved by Australia and get the pimp spot?), let's find out who advances to this week's live show.

Honey, how many of these things will we have to go to?

Part 1. Part 2.

Nothing will prepare parents for the upcoming wave of animation movies this summer. They will be bombarded with animation from the small all the way to the big moneymakers. It is a very unusual summer for animation due to the big studios clumping animation together through May-August in the US. HK will be getting some day-date with US but when you add in the smaller animation films from Japan and the delayed Hollywood animation films, it is going to be tough decision after tough decision for parents as little kids will want to watch animation films this summer. The last 2 years has seen about 6-7 animation films hit the big screen from May-August but 2013 will be even worse for parents (but better for kids).

May 23 Weekend Estimates

The Voice Australia Season 2, Episode 20: Pimping is what this show does best

We're down to the final 16 on The Voice Australia season 2. There's been some great performances and a lot of meh performances but it's a new chapter for the contestants as we have reached the live rounds. Tonight, they will be performing 1 song each and at the conclusion of each team's last act, the team's coach will get to save 1 of their 4 artists to move onto next week. Before we get started, I've got to say that The Voice Australia has been very predictable in who they want to advance. Harrison has performed last 3/3 times while Luke Kennedy and Michael Paynter have been last twice. They need to at least TRY not to be as obvious and rotate the artists around. Even American Idol isn't that blatant with the performance order.

Fast & Furious 6 preview

Among this year's crop of summer blockbusters, one film stands out in particular. Long known as being non-interesting to viewers, The Fast & Furious series has grown from that of a weakling to a formidable opponent.

The Re-Emergence of the Thailand Movie Industry in Hong Kong [Next Thai movie: Long Weekend, June 6!]

If your only exposure to Thailand movies is Ong Bak, well you have been missing out the past couple of years. Once famous for action, horror films have replaced them and has injected new life into Hong Kong's box office and into Thailand's movie industry. You only have to look at the most recent weekend to see how.

Pee Mak Phra Khanong Hong Kong poster (พี่มากพระโขนง)

May 16 Weekend Estimates

Ranking the online websites of theater chains

Have you ever had the frustration of going online to buy a ticket only to see an error or get so annoyed with loading times that you try to find others way of buying a ticket? This is where we see which sites are up to snuff and which ones don't make the cut.

The Power of Release Dates

Release dates in the movie-going business is everything. Put out a film on the same weekend as a blockbuster and watch it get crushed but place it on a weekend where no film will control all the screens and maybe it could turn into a hit. In HK, this premise is the same. Let's look at some recent highlights and lowlights to gain a better understanding.

Pink is the new black is so yesterday

New trends have emerged over the past couple of years. Now, more than ever, distributors have gotten more strategic over the placement of their films. There have been some wild successes but massive failures as well. Here are some of the more interesting trends that have taken place in the past few years.

I told you I don't want to join your super secret boy band.

Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh...oops, wrong superhero.

Pretty much the weekend that everyone has been waiting for is finally here. Strap yourselves in, folks.

Laughter...coming to a theater near you.

a.k.a. 2013 Summer Schedule (Part 2) - Comedies
 

Part 1 is here.

Translation complete!

If you need translation into another language, my blog is now equipped with a translator!

I'm Tony Stark...bow down and worship me.

For weekend updates on Iron Man 3, please visit this website or head here.

It's Oblivion time!

This weekend will officially mark the start of the 2013 summer season with a couple of new entries expected to land in the top 3. Oblivion will be the first #1 film of the summer and it is looking to equal Battleship's opening weekend number from last year. Unlike Battleship, which ran the gamut at the box office same time last year, Oblivion faces a stiff challenge from the 3rd Detective, a.k.a. Conspirators.

Inner workings of HK box office - Distributors (Part 2)

Part 1 is here.

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Distributors in HK are quite different from many territories around the world. What makes HK somewhat unique is that the distributors here own the theater chain and will schedule films accordingly depending on type of film and size of release. 6 out of the 7 theater chains are owned by a parent company who distributes and markets films. In this part, we'll cover both theater owned distributors and non-theater owned distributors.

2012 theater market share

 The winner:

  (Broadway/AMC)

2013 Q1 box office

Local box office took in $43.4m through the period ending March 28 with A Good Day to Die Hard taking top honors with 3.68m. That was down 2% from last year when the first 3 months collected $44.2m and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island roped in 4.5m. The first 3 months of 2013 can be summed up by 1 weekend: Chinese New Year. 4/5 top 5 films have come from CNY weekend alone including the top 2, which are the only films to have made more than 3m.

An atypical Thursday

Unlike the majority of Thursday's, today is a holiday. It's rare when an opener gets a chance to maximize their profits on their very first day as everyone has to wait until the weekend to show it. For all holdovers from last week, that means it gets 2 weekends with holidays in them. That's a pretty good head start.

Iron Man 3 B.O.

Kid: Mom, I wanna see Iron Man 3.
Mom: Ok hun, but we have to wait 3 more weeks for it to come out. Can you wait that long?
Kid: Nooo, I want to see it now!
Mom: Oh, I thought you wanted to watch Oblivion? And The Host? And...
Kid: Mom, I already told you. IRON. MAN. 3. *sad face*
Mom: Ok well, there's still 24 days before it comes out.
Kid: That's too far away!!!
Mom: Oh, make that 25. Thursday is a schoolday.
Kid: MOM!!

April 25.

(And no, B.O. doesn't stand for a funky smell emitting from a body part with sweat glands.)

Inner workings of HK box office - Theaters (Part 1)

Ever wonder how HK box office really works? Yeah? In part 1, we'll look at the different theater chains around HK. Right now in HK, there are 7 theater chains and 41 theaters in operation. Here's the rundown.

2013 Summer Schedule (Part 1)

This year's summer schedule is starting to fill up quickly. Blockbusters and animations have taken up most of the slots so far and Chinese movies are starting to pile up on the schedule. On the up side, Hollywood comedies have made a big return after last year's drive-by. Sci-fi movies are also trending upwards with at least one sci-fi release scheduled in each month. Details after the jump.

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome everyone! I'll be blogging about HK's box office as well as release dates for the HK market. All comments are welcome and much appreciated.

You can follow me on twitter here. Thanks for visiting!

March 28, 2013 Weekend Predictions

The last weekend of March will feature some interesting match-ups including GI Joe 2 and The Croods and Finding Mr. Right and Ip Man: The Final Fight. Easter will provide the catalyst for a bump in sales from last weekend. Predictions and analysis after the jump.