JOHNNY ENGLISH and MAYDAY explode, TATSUMI and CHALET GIRL sink

19 Sep 2011

JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN and MAYDAY 3DNA open big, while THE SMURFS continue to show strong legs. Other new releases yield terrible to moderate results. Here's a quick running (opinionated) commentary -

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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