Premium ticket prices boost Asian box office

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Box Office News

The influence of 3-D cinema and Avatar in particular are clearly in evidence as box office around Asia rose strongly in the first half of the year.

The extra on-screen dimension gave exhibitors the chance to charge premium prices, even though the number of tickets sold did not head upwards in every Asian territory. The clearest examples of this divergence were in Hong Kong and South Korea.

In HK box office in the first six months of the year was up by 20% in revenue terms, but down by 2% in ticket numbers, according to data from the MPIA (香港電影協會). In Korea, using KOBIS (영화관입장권통합전산망) data, admissions were down 4% at 69.4 million tickets, but box office expressed in local currency was up 15% at ₩547 billion ($447 million).

While official half-year Japanese box office numbers are not in yet, 2010 figures seem to be on a par with 2009 numbers. However, Toho (東宝), Japan's leading distributor and exhibitor, reports that while admissions were only up 0.6% in the first six months, revenue climbed 7.7% to ¥25.1 billion ($283 million).

The biggest growth story of the lot was China – again — where box office revenue doubled year-on-year. Revenue for Jan 1 – 27 June was an estimated RMB4.52 billion ($667 million) compared with RMB2.26 billion in the first half of 2009.

Avatar, earning RMB1.35 billion ($198 million) and making China the film's biggest territory outside of the US, accounted for 60% of the RMB2.26 billion increase. Premium price tickets for Alice In Wonderland (RMB220 million, $32 million) and Clash of The Titans (RMB167 million, $24.5 million), both in the top five, also helped lift the China BO total.

China Film Group boss Han Sanping (韓三平) said he maintained his prediction that the full year total will exceed RMB10 billion ($1.47 billion) compared with last year's RMB6.6 billion ($970 million). If anything, that estimate may now be conservative.

Ip Man 2 (葉問2) was the biggest local film in China and Hong Kong, scoring RMB230 million ($34 million) and HK$43.3 million ($5.58 million) respectively. In South Korea the local champion was Secret Reunion (의형제) on 5.42 million admissions (worth W40.2 billion, $32.8 million) – a figure not that different to Ip Man's Chinese total. With June the second strongest of the year for Korean films, local market share was pegged at 43% for the first six months, down a couple of points from 45% in the first six months of 2009.

China claimed four additional Chinese language titles in its top ten with Little Big Soldier (大兵小將) on RMB154 million ($22.6 million), 14 Blades (錦衣衛) on RMB143 million ($21.0 million), Go! Lala Go! (杜拉拉升職記) on RMB132 million ($19.4 million) and Just Another Pandora's Box (越光寶盒) on RMB130 million ($19.1 million) filling rankings seven to ten.

In Hong Kong, trailing Avatar was Alice In Wonderland on HK$44.1 million ($5.69 million), Ip Man 2 ahead of 72 Tenants of Prosperity (72家租客) HK$34.4 ($4.43 million), Iron Man 2 on HK$29.3 million ($3.78 million). Surprise local hit Echoes of the Rainbow (歲月神偷) managed HK$23.1 ($2.98 million).

In Japan, while there was no local film with the box office hitting power of last year's Rookies (ROOKIES　卒業, which ended its run on $96 million), local animation franchises scored solidly. Together, the latest One Piece (ワンピース), Detective Conan (名探偵コナン) and Doraemon (ドラえもん) films crossed $110m million.

The most successful live action releases were Nodame Cantabile 2 (のだめカンタービレ, $40 million), Confessions (告白, $30 million to date) and Liar Game (ライアーゲーム, $25 million). But July may have already seen the first local blockbuster of the year with the 3 July release of Bayside Shakedown 3: Set the Guys Loose! (踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 3 ヤツらを解放せよ!) that took $11m in its opening weekend.

The biggest opening of the year in Japan was Alice in Wonderland with $14.3m over a two-day weekend, and approximately $134 after twelve weeks on release.

Updated with Toho numbers.

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