New films make strong debuts as TAKEN 2 holds at no. 1

15 Oct 2012

SINGAPORE - TAKEN 2 holds at no.1 for a second week. With US$2,371,450 collected, it is now the highest grossing film for Fox and the 11th highest grosser of 2012 to date. It also easily eclipses the US$669,539 made by its predecessor, which was released by Cathay-Keris Films in 2009.

Scoring the highest screen average of the week and debuting at no. 2 is LOOPER, which grossed US$324,623 from 17 screens for an impressive screen average of US$19,095. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER has the 3rd highest screen average behind LOOPER and TAKEN 2 (US$15,092). It debuts at no. 5 with US85,636 from 6 screens and a mighty US$14,273 screen average.

Other debuts include SINISTER at no. 3 with US$246,900 from 25 screens and a strong U$9,876 screen average and THE BULLET VANISHES (消失的子弹) at no. 4 with US$103,791 and a screen average of US$4,513 from 23 screens.

BULLET's debut trails two recent Mandarin film releases - THE ASSASSINS (铜雀台) (US$221,553/25 screens) and TAI CHI 0 (太极) (US$194,142/30 screens). Meanwhile, crashing in its debut is the Chinese remake of DANGEROUS LIAISONS (危险关系), which starts with a disastrous US$55,259 from 21 screen and a horrible screen average of US$2,631.

Missing form the ranking is JAN DARA - the latest adaptation of the erotic Thai novel. It fails to rank in CFEA's chart, which means that it probably grossed less than US$22,907 from a probable 6 screens.

Tamil movie MAATTRRAAN probably opens on 8 or 9 screens while Hindi releases AIYYAA and OMG - OH MY GOD! are probably released on 4 each. What is notable is that MAATTRRAAN is playing at The Grand Cathay - the biggest hall at The Cathay cinema. With the increase in the number of Indian films playing at more popular cineplexes (and many doing brisk business), some of these titles might easily have ranked in the Top 10, perhaps even Top 5 if box office figures were available. (These Indian releases are not ranked by Box Office Mojo or CFEA.)

For the 8th straight week, the total top ten box office is below that of the same period a year ago. US$1,703,443 was collected over this weekend, a 3.79% dip behind 2011's US$1,770,493 when REAL STEEL spent a 2nd week at no.1 and ticket prices were lower.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/singapore/?yr=2012&wk=41&p=.htm