Chinese New Year treats HK to early Hollywood releases
Chinese New Year is THE biggest weekend of the year for Hong Kong. It's the weekend where everything will get released. Local films, animation, action, dramas, foreign and arthouse have all played in theaters the past couple of years. Heck, Chinese New Year 2012 had all of those and 2013 arguably had all those genres as well. When the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth was first announced, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that it would make over 4m in HK. The first one made a killing in HK, tallying over 4.5m and HK became one of its highest grossing international markets. On the weekend leading up to Chinese New Year 2012, Journey 2 overpowered the others taking it toward a first place finish and over 1m that weekend. 2013 saw the same thing happen with Die Hard 5 getting the early call on the first weekend of February. It performed similar to Journey 2 and prevailed over the other newcomers for 1st and captured another gross over 1m. 2014 will see the much delayed remake of Robocop out 1 week before North America. Can it continue the winning streak that Hollywood films are on?As a side benefit, it is amazing what releasing a movie early does for Hollywood box office on Chinese New Year. The previous 4 Chinese New Year's before 2012 saw local films annihilate Hollywood competition until this trend started.
Current streak: 2 (soon to be 3)
Weekend previews become the new normal
There was a time in HK box office where everyone would release their films on Thursday and be on their merry way but ever since 2011, distributors have been upping their game and targeting moviegoers early with weekend sneaks to create or enhance buzz for their films and to spread the word. I have pretty much lost count of how many films have been given this treatment but this trend is not looking like it will phase out soon.
Current streak: 3 years and counting
Comedies churn out the laughs on the first weekend of June
June 2011 was a time for sci-fi films to get their freaks on. While all 4 sci-fi films had elements of sci-fi in them, there was another, not as influential, genre making waves. The Hangover 2 came out on the first weekend of June and put in a solid performance, marking its territory with a #2 showing. It continued its good run with good holds the next few weeks but The Hangover 2 (and by extension The Hangover) ultimately opened the doors for the comedy market to get a foothold in HK. Sacha Baron Cohen came out with a new comedy in 2012 and The Dictator tried to rule HK the same weekend in 2012 but lost to the sci-fi alien powerhouse Prometheus. While it was no laughing matter that The Dictator lost, its strength came in its numbers when Dictator punished with more than $360,000 on opening weekend. It became Sacha Baron Cohen's biggest hit in HK as a leading funnyman as The Dictator smacked Borat and Bruno around by beating their totals with just its opening weekend. We now come to 2013 where Hangover 3 will be praying that third time's the charm and steal #1 away from After Earth.
Current streak: 2 (soon to be 3)
HK is into the 8 digits with films making over 10m
It took a juggernaut to do it but in 2009, Avatar squashed everything in sight and become the first film since Titanic to top 10m. It was a much needed breakthrough as HK had been stalemating for more than a decade with no film coming close to reaching the 10m threshold. After Avatar's
whirlwind run, the next year Toy Story 3 enthralled viewers and became the biggest animated movie in history, scoring over 11.5m. In 2011, HK almost made another milestone happen when Harry Potter 7-2 tried for 10m to join Transformers 3 in becoming the first 2 films to reach the elusive mark in the same calendar year. Last year saw 2 records broken on the same weekend when The Dark Knight Rises flew past 10m to become the first 2D film to break 10m and teamed up with The Avengers to snatch the title of 2 films breaking 10m in the same year.Current streak: 4 and counting
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