- Thing about websites that do almost daily box office updates is that you miss out on reporting the Sunday grosses on Monday, then you miss the overall weekend picture. Also, you then have to report that See You In Youtube actually topped the box office on the next day. That’s right, the Oxide Pang-led feature-length student film finally topped the box office on Monday, January 28th, 2008, making HK$184,000 from 28 screens for a grand 12-day total of HK$4.36 million.

All the way in 4th place on Monday was Sunday’s surprise winner, Atashin’ichi the Movie. It lost its family-friendly business on Monday and made only HK$75,000 from 16 screens for an 12-day total (trust me, I didn’t read it wrong; they changed it around) of HK$2.73 million. Second place, though falling very very quickly, is the handheld cam monster flick Cloverfield with just HK$145,000 from 36 screens, though it has made HK$6.93 million already, which is pretty good for a Hollywood film whose viral marketing did not reach Hong Kong.

As for last week’s openers, The Kite Runner did only OK with its limited release, having made HK$620,000 from 8 screens over 5 days. That’s HK$124,000 each day, with a HK$15,000 average. It probably did much better over the weekend, since it only made about HK$60,000 of it on Monday. The other opener, the Thai horror film 13 Beloved, made just HK$180,000 from 13 screens over 5 days. I’d say that’s a qualified flop.

- The Japanese box office numbers also came out, with Sweeney Todd still on top after losing almost 40% of last weekend’s business (that fall is on the higher end of the usual drop), almost losing to the new ensemble film Kagehinata Ni Saku, which opened at second place with a better per-screen average. Also with a better per-screen average than Sweeney Todd is the documentary Earth, which lost only another 25% of its business from last week.

Meanwhile, the Yoji Yamada drama Kaabei opened in 4th place, though the previous Yoji Yamada films tend to have lasting power rather than huge opening weekends. I’m pretty sure Eiga Consultant will be analyzing this opening soon.

My fingers are freezing. That’s it today.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Japan, Hong Kong, box office. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.