We’re back, after a long weekend for us, as well as much of Asia.

- As expected, it was a fairly busy weekend at the Hong Kong box office because of the holiday and all.  Last year, Lust, Caution ruled the even busier weekend and became the highest-grossing film of the year. But this year saw no high-profile Chinese language film opening during the holiday weekend, which means that foreign films ruled the weekend. As expected, Mamma Mia took the top spot with HK$1.1 million from 38 screens on Monday for a 5-day weekend total of HK$4.94 million.

The Japanese puppy film 10 Promises With My Dog did pretty well over the weekend as well, making HK$571,000 from 37 screens for a 5-day weekend total of HK$2.19 million. The Thai horror film 4BIA also did fairly well with HK$417,000 from 27 screens for a 5-day weekend total of HK$1.85 million. It doesn’t sound like it’s much, but it should be one of the better-grossing Thai films in recent years. Sadly, the only Chinese entry, the arthose flick Ocean Flames, didn’t do so well. From 26 screens (very few playing it for the whole day), it only made HK$96,600 for a 5-day total of HK$450,000.

As for holdovers, Brendan Frasier continues to own the multiplexes with Journey to the Center of the Earth, which made another HK$506,000 from 22 screens on Monday. The more-expensive 3D screens have helped the Hollywood adventure film make HK$33.29 million after 33 days. The Pang Brothers’ self-remake Bangkok Dangerous lost a chunk of its audience, making HK$206,000 from 32 screens (much of them not playing the film for a full day) for a 12-day total of HK$3.29 million. This year’s box office champion The Dark Knight is still on the top 10 with HK$77,000 from 9 screens on Monday and a 61-day total of HK$58.03 million.

- Some good news in Korean cinema, as the Korean period film The Divine Weapon beat Hollywood musical Mamma Mia for the top spot for the second week in a row. Meanwhile, neither 20th Century Boys nor Boys Over Flowers could make a dent in the top ten.

More from Korea Pop Wars

- It was a holiday weekend in Japan as well, but none of the newcomer can dethrone 20th Century Boys as the number 1 film in the audience attendance ranking. The most successful contender is Tetsuya Nakashima’s Paco and the Magical Book, which pulled off a 2nd place debut. Meanwhile, the new Ultraman movie debuts at 4th place, while the critically-acclaimed Departures manage a 5th place debut.

- Thanks to the successes of 20th Century Boys, Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea, and Detroit Metal City, Japanese distributor Toho saw a record-breaking gross for August.

- It’s Japanese drama ratings time! A few more Summer 2008 dramas wrapped upthis past week. In addition to Code Blue’s 19.5% finale (a 15.6% average), Ando Natsu (season-low 7.1% finale for a 9.3% average), Monster Parents (13.6% finale for a season average of 12.2%), Seigi no Mikata (12.2% finale for a 10.3% season average), Maou (season-high 14.1% finale for a season average of 11.4%), and Koizora (only 7 episodes long with a 6.3% finale and a season average of 6.4%, making it the lowest-rated drama of the season) all wrapped up, with only Maou, Code Blue, and Seigi ni Mikata seeing a big ratings boost. Hopefully next season will be better.

It’s time to get back to work, which means we only have time for number-crunching this time. More real news in the next entry.