According to statistics from EBOT EntGroup Box Office Tracker, the mainland box office gross for the 47th week (November 18-24) was close to ¥420 million ($68 million), up 27% compared to last week and a staggering 48% y-o-y. Moviegoers this week totaled 11.49 million.
Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity scored $35.76 million in six days, emerging as the third best opener of the year. Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which has not performed as strongly as Chinese theatres and media outlets predicted, wound up with $12.95 million, a 19% share of the market. Previous week's champ Thor: The Dark World dropped to third place, adding another $6.34 million for a cumulative total of $52.78 million. China is now the largest international market for the Thor sequel, outside the US. Escape Plan earned $4.55 million in fourth place for a current total cume of $38.91 million. Its domestic gross in the United States stands around $24.5 million, making China the largest single territory for the Stallone-Schwarzenegger action flick. Red 2 brought in $2.57 in sixth. Mainland-Hong Kong-Taiwan co-production Control grossed $3.51 million after three days in release, accounting for 5.2% of the whole market, which is not bad for a domestic film competing head-to-head with several Hollywood blockbusters.
When it comes to the fierce war between Warner Bros. and Lionsgate, things are never easy or what they seem. The Chinese theatre managers were quite generous to Gravity when setting screening schedules. The sci-fi flick enjoyed 175018 showings, almost twice as many as Catching Fire and one third of the total showings last week. The Jennifer Lawrence starrer could have done better if Gravity hadn't been released right before it. With its 146-minute runtime, the 2D adaption hardly has any advantages over Cuarón's seven-year-in-the-making sci-fi disaster pic, when the latter enjoys more screenings and higher 3D/IMAX ticket sales.
There have been eleven space films imported into China in the past three years. Not including Gravity, the rest combined for a gross of almost ¥1.9 billion, among which the best performer was Star Trek Into Darkness ($56.74 million). With an average 30 admissions per screening and a daily gross of over ¥30 million, The Sandra Bullock monodrama stands a chance at breaking Star Trek's record in a couple weeks' time.
"It is their curiosity about the unknown that fascinated the young people. In some degree, the feeling in the out space turns out to be a metaphor of the real life: sometimes cold, quite, everything is out of control," said Columnist Huang Tongtong. Although there exist some mistakes in the film, Gravity still wins great applaud worldwide. Rather than the scientific facts, it is the imagination that matters more in this movie. As former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman said, "It's just a movie - and a very good one."
As of last Sunday, the 2013 nationwide box office gross stands at over ¥19 billion. The 2012 annual box office gross was ¥17.073 billion. This year the number of screens in Mainland China has grown from 13118 to 17700. And a bunch of domestic big budget productions are about to roll out in cinemas for the New Year movie season. Consequently, the annual gross may reach as high as ¥24 billion for 2013.
Upcoming films next week:
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EntGroup Consulting is the leading research and consulting company focusing on China’s entertainment industry. A member of ComInsight Information Alliance Group, EntGroup focuses on providing data and information, conducting market research, industry research, consulting, and organizing media conferences. We serve a wide range of clients in areas of film, TV, new media, entertainment marketing and animation.
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About EBOT
EBOT EntGroup Box Office Tracker is a database focusing on the entertainment industry. Created and managed by China's leading entertainment industry research institute, EntGroup, it provides statistics and analysis on film and TV industries, as well as insight on market trends and consumer behaviors. It is an essential tool for entertainment investors, financiers, film production companies, distributors and advertisers. EBOT integrates Box Office data and analysis, moviegoer surveys, advertising insight, buzz tracking and industry research reports.
For more information, please visit: http://english.entgroup.com.cn/enbase.html or contact
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