Tuesday, March 19, 2013

BODIES warms its way to No.1

18 Mar 2013

SINGAPORE - It's the start of the one week school break as a whopping 11 films debut - none of which proved to be exceptional box office performers.  

Leading the pack is the horror romance comedy WARM BODIES, which crawls its way to the no. 1 spot, toppling OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL by a narrow margin. Released on 34 screens, WARM BODIES grabs hold of US$473,970 for a decent US$13,940 screen average - it's a modest no.1 debut as only two other films opened to lower numbers at the top this year - GANGSTER SQUAD (US$362,354) and THE IMPOSSIBLE (US$382,475). Last year, 5 films managed to debut at no.1 with a gross that's less than US$500,000.

The big budget fantasy adventures films OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL and JACK THE GIANT SLAYER managed to hold off the rest of the new releases. OZ grossed another US$468,716 to push its total to US$1,494,973 while JACK adds another US$187,828 for a US$2,061,878 tally - becoming the 3rd film to cross US$2m this year to date.

THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE - the comedy about duelling magicians is the second highest new debut with US$121,552 while the Hong Kong period action comedy PRINCESS AND THE SEVEN KUNGFU MASTERS from Wong Jing has the second highest screen average amongst new releases (US$7,005). PRINCESS has collected US$70,048 from 10 screens.

The Rock's latest action caper SNITCH draws US$105,015 from 17 screens for a US$6,177 screen average while THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA finally opens after 6 weeks of sneak previews with a US$58,423 weekend total and a US$107,397 haul to date.

The latest anime release HUNTER X HUNTER: PHANTOM ROUGE grosses US$14,636 from 6 screens for a US$2,439 screen average. Compared to recent anime releases, it's not quite the blockbuster that ONE PIECE FILM Z is (US$73,514 opening weekend/6 screens). The numbers are weaker than ROAD TO NINJA: NARUTO THE MOVIE (US$21,289 opening weekend/3 screens) - which incidentally is back on screens again this week, but stronger than FAIRY TAIL: THE PHOENIX PRIESTESS (US$10,986/2 screens).

Despite being strong box office performers in their native countries, both the Korean thriller CONFESSION OF MURDER (US$12,152 total/US$1,736 screen average) and Takeshi Kitano's mafia sequel OUTRAGE BEYOND (US$5,048/US$2,524 screen average) failed to set the Singapore box office on fire. OUTRAGE BEYOND opened to less than half the numbers of the original OUTRAGE film which started with US$10,665 on its way to a US$23,214 finish in 2010.

The following films debut but were unlisted by Box Office Mojo. It is very likely none of the films grossed more than US$19,480 -

THE GATEKEEPERS - nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Oscars gets released exclusively at Filmgardge Bugis+.

ARMY DAZE: THE MOVIE is still Singapore's top grossing movie not produced by MediaCorp Raintree or starring or directed by Jack Neo with S$1.6m from its run in 1996. The film gets remastered and re-released for the school break from 16-25 Mar.

SEX.VIOLENCE.FAMILYVALUES. is the 8th domestic theatrical release this year. Clocking in at an estimated 50 minutes, the drama comedy omnibus of three shorts was banned last year but managed to clear the censors after dialogues deemed offensive were removed and the rating revised to the higher R21 category.

Apart from these 11 debuts, DINOSAURS 3D! - IQ CINEMA was also screened with limited sessions.

Overall, the top ten films grossed US$1,742,889 - a small 0.4% dip from last week but a 3.21% growth from the same frame a year ago when was JOHN CARTER was the no. 1 film for a second week.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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