19 Sep 2011
Rowen Atkinson continues to prove his box office draw - never mind that it's been quite a while since the last Mr Bean and Johnny English outings. REBORN's first weekend gross is US$1,645,282 with a bustling US$32,260 screen average (only KUNG FU PANDA 2 scored a marginally higher US$32,843 screen average this year).
MAYDAY 3DNA has a screen average of US$16,100 for a total of US$96,600. Very good numbers for a concert film.
Most of the other new releases debut with moderate to terrible results - DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK managed a US$5,016 screen average for a total of US$95,313. This is marginally less than MAYDAY (which was playing on only 6 screens vs. DARK's 19 screens).
Released with little publicity in a crowded marketplace, romance pics A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN and CHALET GIRL and action flick BLITZ performed pretty much badly. CHALET GIRL's screen average of US$1,952 is one of the lowest this year. A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN (US$5,507) and BLITZ (US$4,479) did not perform too encouragingly either considering that the genres are pretty much mainstream.
And amongst the 3 foreign language films released -
TATSUMI had wide newspaper coverage and positive reviews - it debut at Cannes earlier this year and it's announced as Singapore's entry for the Oscars next year for Best Foreign Language Film. But it scored only a US$2,450 screen average for a total of US$4,899 from 2 screens.
Korean horror I SAW THE DEVIL had a screen average of US$5,791 for a total of US$11,581. Encouraging numbers - as a R21 rating usually severely limits a film's outreach.
1,778 STORIES OF ME AND MY WIFE opens without much publicity and grosses US$3,187 from 1 screen.
Amongst holdovers -
THE SMURFS continue to show strong legs even as it dips a hefty 71,2% from the previous week. It has now grossed more than US$2.72m in just 3 weeks, and could finish in the range of US$3-3.5m at least. (In comparison, CARS 2 has so far grossed only about US$1.64m although it was released a week earlier)
The homosexual themed comedy BEGINNERS has gross US$54,132 after 5 weeks. That's just about what a film of this genre will make when the cinema attendance is healthy (THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT made US$53,320 earlier this year, while A SINGLE MAN made US$76,510 in 2010).
The terrorist comedy FOUR LIONS and biographical drama THE FIRST GRADER have grossed US$30,615 and US$19,362 to date. Numbers are probably within expectations for these kinds of small releases.
For the full box office list, click here.
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