Singapore Box Office [May 8-11]

13 May 2008

Funny a romantic comedy should beat IRON MAN and SPEED RACER at the Singapore Box Office last weekend.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/singapore/?yr=2008&wk=19&p=.htm

I think comedy was the main appeal.

That, and the presence of Cameron Diaz & Ashton Kutcher.

Despite coming in behind IRON MAN and selling much less tickets,
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS's per print average makes it the champion:
(28 prints - $14,680 average) WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
(64 prints - $11,313 average) IRON MAN
(44 prints - $6,401 average) SPEED RACER

SPEED RACER probably performed below expectations. Despite being sold as an adventure high octane action flick from the Wachowski Brothers (THE MATRIX), it only took in $281,633 from 44 screens.
Compare that to VEGAS, which managed a significantly higher gross ($411,030) from only 28 screens.

Maybe the promo should have focused more on Rain, but even that I'm not sure would have helped since he isn't the main star of the film either.

Released on only 2 screens is the UK-Australian flick DEATH DEFYING ACTS headlined by Catherine Zeta-Jones, Guy Pearce and Timothy Spall. The romance drama from award-winning director Gillian Armstrong (LITTLE WOMEN) failed to debut in the Top 10 and managed only to gross $3,250. Not good numbers.

IRON MAN fell 53.1% in its second week (similar to the US percentage drop), but grossed another $724,033 at the box office for a total cume of $2,986,599. At this writing, the film has probably surged pass the $3 million mark. It already is the top grossing film in Singapore for 2008, outpacing the previous record holder THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM ($2,419,711), which is also still in release.

The Fann Wong headlined romance dance drama DANCE OF THE DRAGON fell 69.9% in its second week with a gross of $19,136. The film has grossed $120,932 to date. Considering the bad reviews the film suffered, could this actually be good numbers? Then again, its per screen average of $765 puts it slightly below that of the other local film FEET UNBOUND, which is only in limited release.

In its 4th week, FEET UNBOUND grossed another $770. Pretty okay numbers, considering the limited and less popular session(s) assigned to the film this week. It has now taken in $16,772.

All the buzz is also probably helping the single print, R21 rated TAXIDERMIA sell more tickets. In its third week - it pulled in another $3,250 for a total gross of $17,269.

Amongst other noteworthy leftovers, HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY scores another $42,300 for a total of $406,259. Pretty good numbers for a 10 print release in its third week, taking into consideration the restrictive M18 rating as well.

THE OTHER BOLYN GIRL also seems to be doing pretty well for a genre that is usually hard to sell. After 5 weeks, the period romance drama still manages to pull in $2,281 from a single screen to hit a total gross of $176,615.

This week, the non-too inclusive Box Office Mojo failed to include the box office numbers for another new release - the Indonesian romance drama AYAT AYAT CINTA. The film was a box office and critical success in its homeland. It is released on 5 screens in Singapore.

Copyright 2008 LCN