April 28th, 2015<\/p>\n
Chinese-made war action film \u201cWolf Warrior\u201d topped the Chinese box office over the weekend with a strong opening of $32.5 million.<\/p>\n
It beat \u201cKingsman: The Secret Service\u201d in a resilient second frame.<\/p>\n
Many war films have had a tough time at the Chinese box office in recent years, but \u201cWolf Warrior\u201d (aka \u201cWar Warrior\u201d), which features a very Western plot about a special forces soldier who is forced out of the army and goes on to set up his own group of insurgents, had a strong debut.<\/p>\n
Its success may have been helped by the huge recent performance of \u201cThe Taking of Tiger Mountain,\u201d which reached over $150 million. The presence of martial arts ace Wu Jing and Scott Adkins in action roles also likely helped.<\/p>\n
\u201cKingsman\u201d earned $30.8 million over the full week, compared with its opening weekend\u2019s $24.5 million. That gave it a total of $55.2 million after 10 days, according to box office tracking service Ent Group.<\/p>\n
Proving that romance themes have not yet been supplanted by the war genre, local romantic comedy \u201cLet\u2019s Get Married\u201d opened in third place with a four-day total of $22.9 million.<\/p>\n
The top three pictures obliterated the competition and accounted for 82% of the top 10 films\u2019 combined box office.Particularly disappointing was the opening of \u201cOutcast,\u201d the Chinese-financed 3D period action adventure starring Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christiansen, which opened only in ninth place. It managed a three-day start of $1.77 million, and a total including previews of $2.43 million. The film had been set for a 5,000-screen release in September last year, when the local financier halted the release just hours before its first commercial screenings. If the financier\u2019s intention was to secure a more fortuitous date and a still wider release in the film\u2019s biggest potential market, the move failed badly. The film has received crushing reviews, and the East-West formula was better presented in the recent smash hit \u201cDragon Blade,\u201d which starred Jackie Chan alongside Adrien Brody and John Cusack.<\/p>\n
International sales agent Arclight Films represents both \u201cWolf Warrior\u201d and \u201cOutcast\u201d in overseas markets.<\/p>\n
In fourth place, with a three-day debut of $4.33 million, was local suspense thriller \u201cInsanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCinderella\u201d added $3.42 million for a 24-day total of $64.5 million. European animated feature \u201cThe House of Magic\u201d had a two-day opening of $2.98 million. Star-heavy Chinese drama \u201cLost And Love\u201d added $2.4 million for a 17-day cume of $34.2 million. \u201cTaken 3\u201d added $2.3 million for a 17-day cume of $32.2 million. Tenth place went to Hong Kong-made crime actioner \u201cTwo Thumbs Up,\u201d which earned $1.6 million in three day.<\/p>\n
By – Nillesh Sahaya<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
JAPAN BOX OFFICE<\/p>\n
April 30th, 2015<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Disney, Cinderella won Japan with a No. 1 opening and the biggest first-day and weekend for a Western release of 2015. The $4.8M bow was 112% above the opening of Oz: The Great And Powerful and 19% behind the start of Maleficent. In total, the live-action fairy tale added $9.4M in its 7th weekend of release, currently across 41 territories. The international total is $284.8M for a $474.6M global cume.<\/p>\n
By – Nillesh Sahaya<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
KOREAN BOX OFFICE<\/p>\n
April 23rd, 2015<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marvel\u2019s new blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron is expected to draw enormous crowds this weekend after setting significant new pre-sales records ahead of its release today. Before the first screenings took place earlier this morning, early reservations peaked at over 948,000 tickets (USD 8.6 million), which far exceeded the previous benchmark set by Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 2011. Another record set by the second Avengers installment was the highest ever percentage among all films on the pre-sales chart. The blockbuster once again eclipsed the previous 94.5% benchmark set by the third Transformers, by accounting for 96% of all sales. Though Marvel films have proven increasingly popular in Korea, with the first Avengers and Iron Man 3 becoming the high-grossing foreign films in Korea in 2009 and 2011, many speculate that the heightened interest for the film is due to the significant location shooting it underwent in Seoul last year. Cast and crew members of the film, including director Joss Whedon and stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo and local actress Claudia KIM, also visited the Korean capital last week. Avengers: Age of Ultron will certain post huge numbers this weekend and many will look to see if it can unseat.<\/p>\n
By – Nillesh Sahaya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
April 28th, 2015 Chinese-made war action film \u201cWolf Warrior\u201d topped the Chinese box office over the weekend with a strong opening of $32.5 million. It beat \u201cKingsman: The Secret Service\u201d in a resilient second frame. Many war films have had a tough time at the Chinese box office in recent years, but \u201cWolf Warrior\u201d (aka …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-asian-action-box-office","category-boxoffice"],"yoast_head":"\n