According to enbase’s China film boxoffice statistics, mainland boxoffice gross in the 13th week (Mar 26-Apr 01,2012) reached $26.98million, down15% from last week. Moviegoers this week totaled 4.63million, slumping18% when compared to last week.
"Wrath of the Titans” debuted to earn the top spot with $7.45million after 3 days in release. “John Carter of Mars”came in second place after capturing the top spot for two straight weeks, adding $6.3million for a total of $36.18million. “Late Autumn”hauled in $3.88million this week, which was good enough for third place. This week, mainland boxoffice was dominated by the top two Hollywood blockbusters, which accounted for 51% of the weekly total gross.
Even with eight new (and competitive) films,including newcomers “Wrath of the Titans” and “Love in the Buff”, mainland market was immersed in stagnation. The on-going seven-workday which left no leisure time for people to spend in movie theaters may have been responsible. Warner Bros’ epic “Wrath of the Titans” is the sequel of “Clash of the Titans”(2010). “Clash” was criticized for failing to present a high quality 3D visual experience at that time (having suffered from post-production 3D conversion, rather the more technically sound native, in camera 3D pioneered by James Cameron’s Avatar). But an outstanding $493million global gross guaranteed “Clash” the sequel that hit mainland screens this past week. "Wrath of the Titans” teamed up the original producing group (without the director) and improved the visual effects as native 3D cameras were largely used during production. The action sequel opened in top spot in the mainland market with $7.45million, slightly below the $7.91million opening-week gross of its predecessor.
After maintaining the top spot for a straight two weeks, Walt Disney’s mega-budget epic "John Carter of Mars" dropped to second place with a weekly $6.3million in receipts which puts its mainland total gross at over $36million. Worldwide, the sci-fi blockbuster has brought in $255million, predominantly from overseas markets. But considering its $250million production budget and at least another $100million in marketing costs, Walt Disney is doomed to lose a bunch of money on this ambitious flop.
With an impressive star-studded cast including Miriam Yang and Shawn Yu “Love in the Buff” took in $2.94million over three days in release. The film is a sequel to "Love in a Puff" (2010), a romantic comedy set in Hong Kong. Another love story “Late Autumn” maintained a decent performance enroute to making $3.88million this week (down just 12% when compared to its tally last week). Followed by “A Simple Life”, "Late Autumn”confirmed to be the second art-house feature film to cross the RMB 50 million (approx. $7.9 million) in boxoffice receipts so far this year.
According to enbase statistics, “John Carter of Mars” continued to dominate mainland boxoffice screenings this week, enjoying 20% of the market share in terms of total number of screenings, followed by “Late Autumn” which took 17% of the weekly screenings. With a late start on March30 "Wrath of the Titans” just took 13% of the screening market share but enjoyed the highest audience attendance per screening. That may bring it many more screening times next week. We’ll have to wait and see.
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