June 27 Weekend Estimates

Weekend Estimates June 27 Rank Movie TW % chg Total 1 Man of Steel $2,100,000 $2,100,000 2 World War Z $900,000 -59.2% $3,945,000 3 Epic $425,000 $425,000 4 Now You See Me $260,000 -63.2% $2,955,000 5 Midsummer Formula $190,000 $190,000

 

It was not the welcome that Superman or Warner Bros. were hoping for as Man of Steel was left behind by HK moviegoers. Charged with expensive tickets in 2D and 3D, viewers that were on the fence decided not to go and those that did chose 2D as their viewing of choice. 2D accounted for about 30% while Avengers and Iron Man 3 saw 3D levels in the 80% range. The man from Krypton never really got a foothold in HK as it only scored 30,254 admissions on Thursday. Those admissions were even less than the pre-sales of Iron Man 2 & 3, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and Toy Story 3. On Friday, it got even more bad news when it nudged up just 16% from Thursday. Normally, long films see a nice bump on Friday as people are more willing to watch it then. For Man of Steel, its low increase meant that people were ignoring the film and wanted to wait for something else to see. Saturday brought no relief as it gained 40% from Friday. While its increase got dragged down by the previews and new openers, it should have performed better to correct for the lack of increase on Friday. Sunday was its best day with it crossing the 50,000 mark but it added just 5% even with the holiday-fueled Sunday. Its admissions could not match the scorching hot admissions from World War Z as it failed to even capture one day of admissions and lost by 40,000 admissions in total. The high ticket prices barely saved it from not making 2m and admissions per showing were pretty low all week. WOM is OK-decent. With Monsters University set to dominate the landscape in 1 and a half weeks time, Man of Steel will have to start performing better if it wants to beat out World War Z's total. Looking at the road ahead, Man of Steel will drop heavily once Monsters University opens and WOM is not looking that great so a total of about 4.7m is expected.

World War Z slid down a spot but its gross took more damage than its ranking. Man of Steel stole most of its screens and it was forced to make do with the 2nd or 3rd biggest screens this weekend. It lost more than 50% of screens to Kal-El and its 59% drop is reflected in the screen loss. It did not have great increases throughout the weekend but it performed admirably with admissions remaining pretty high, averaging 20,000 for the weekend. It will cross 4m tomorrow on the July 1 holiday and it will close in on 4.5m next weekend. 5.2m is where I think it will finish.

Hollywood's first foray into the animation summer season began with Epic this week. Lined up across from Man of Steel, this was not expected to gross that much. Fortunately for Epic, Man of Steel disappointed and it outperformed its very low expectations. It began in 4th on Thursday but it steadily climbed with it having the best increase of the top 10 on Saturday and Sunday. WOM is remarkable and it is the highest ranked release inside the top 10. The problem that Epic faces is competition. Despicable Me 2 has already began showing with sneak previews on Saturday and Sunday but Epic faces a tougher task when theaters must allocate showtimes for Gru and his minions fully on Thursday. It then has to deal with Monsters University the week after and that should nearly wipe out all its showtimes. The heavy competition should completely kill its legs but it might be able to rope in 1.1m before leaving.

Now You See Me was eviscerated this weekend by the new openers. It held alright on Thursday and Friday, decreasing 50% on both days but once Saturday rolled around, it was too much to handle. It lost its screen to the Midsummer Formula/Despicable Me 2/Blind Detective combination and was left to share a screen with somebody else. The setback was costly as it tumbled more than 70% on Saturday and close to 70% on Sunday. It could not survive the wave of new films, therefore, its week-to-week drops plummeted. Sunday even tied Friday in admissions. 3m will be passed tomorrow and it is stocking up for a 3.4m ending.

Midsummer Formula stormed in on Saturday and shot straight to #3 in admissions. It opened with 12,782 admissions but had a weaker Sunday, inching up 2%. The promotion from Masaharu Fukuyama in Hong Kong seems to have done its part as tickets were flying off the shelves for the most part. WOM seems to have recovered from the early blows and it looks like it will male almost half of Suspect X's total. Suspect X parted with almost 1.6m in 2008 but 4 and half years without a movie has taken its toll on Midsummer Formula's potential gross. It is looking very frontloaded so far but the good WOM could reverse its trend in the coming weeks. $700,000 might happen if WOM continues to spread.

After the top 5, we have a couple of films that debuted with sneak previews on Saturday. Despicable Me 2 got a head start ahead of its official release with early screenings on the weekend. The goodwill from the first film has led into an alright 2-day previews gross, tallying an estimated $155,000. It will make far more than its original's OW and could make about $800,000 with just its 4-day alone. The bad news for it is that Monsters University comes out the week after and it will crush everything and everyone.

Blind Detective saw a slow beginning with previews, breaching just 10,000 admissions for the 2-day. Recent reviews have damaged its chances of getting a decent gross here and WOM doesn't look strong. Being released so close to Andy Lau's biggest box office failure does not help either. For the 2-day, it grossed an estimated $77,000.

Last weekend, Badges of Fury launched with Friday sneaks that turned into week long sneaks. It captured no one's attention and fell flat with viewers. This weekend, its holding well but it seems to be dependent on its low sneaks from last weekend than any WOM running through. Speaking of WOM, it is scoring badly among viewers with it being one of the worst reviewed movies of the top 10. Including all of its previews, it will make about $75,000 total.

Miracle in Cell No. 7 was put out to pasture this weekend by the new openers. Its journey this weekend was nearly identical to Now You See Me's journey. It slipped 50% on Thursday and about 45% on Friday before collapsing more than 60% on Saturday and Sunday. WOM remains excellent but it made just $15,000 for a new cume of $158,000.