Still "Hunger Games" season
Writer: Elaine Ewe
Jennifer Lawrence in a scene in "The Hunger Games". |
10 Apr – For the third consecutive week, Gary Ross' "The Hunger Games" took the top spot in the US box office for the Easter weekend (5 – 8 Apr) totalling $302.5 million. Despite the entry of two formidable titles, which were the raunchy "American Reunion" and James Cameron's disaster epic "Titanic 3D", the science fiction action drama which starred Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth in the leads had little difficulty in pulling in audience numbers, ranking behind non-sequels "Avatar" and "Titanic" for box office gross. Meanwhile, "American Reunion" and "Titanic 3D" ranked second and third respectively. It could be said that both films had been diluted over the ages, the former with three existing instalments to its credit while the latter had been watched and re-watched to death following its part in establishing the 'Leo-mania' and model for romantic disaster epics.
On the other hand, in Malaysia, "The Hunger Games" has dropped out of the top five. In top spot is still Jonathan Liebesman's "Wrath Of The Titans", followed by the Singaporean comedy "We Not Naughty", which finally saw release in Malaysia after its early Singapore release back in 19 January. Directed by veteran Jack Neo, the film examined the problems faced by parents with their rebellious children in Singapore's current society. In third place is the sequel "Street Dance 2", which featured a new protagonist, streetdancer Ash (Falk Hentschel), who aims to beat the world's best dance crew at a dance-off in Paris by gathering the greatest streetdancers from Europe.
"Wrath Of The Titans" also continued its top spot domination in Singapore, while in second place was "Mirror Mirror" in its opening week, Tarsem Singh's reimagining of the Brothers Grimm fairytale "Snow White" that starred Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer and Nathan Lane as Snow White, Queen Clementianna, Prince Andrew Alcott and Brighton, the Queen's loyal servant. In Singapore, "The Hunger Games" saw better reception, leading to its third place round up. It should be noted that the two big film competitors in the US, "American Reunion" and "Titanic 3D" did not make the cut for top three, both in Malaysia and Singapore.
In Malaysia, other new releases over the weekend were "The Flowers Of War", "Titanic 3D", "Dark Flight", "3 Temujanji", "Housefull 2" and "Mirza".
On the other hand, other releases in Singapore were "American Pie: Reunion", "The Vow", "Titanic 3D", "Housefull 2", "3x Trouble", "Nightfall" and "Dark Flight".
Box office takings for the weekend just gone (5 April - 8 April 2012)
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Malaysia
1) Wrath Of The Titans
2) We Not Naughty
3) Street Dance 2
4) 3
5) Titanic 3D
6) Mirror Mirror
7) The Hunger Games
8) Jangan Pandang-Pandang
9) Dark Flight
10) 3 Temujanji |
Singapore
1) Wrath Of The Titans
2) Mirror Mirror
3) The Hunger Games
4) The Vow
5) American Pie : Reunion
6) Titanic 3D
7) Flowers of War
8) ATM
9) Dr Seuss' the Lorax
10) Salmon Fishing In The Yemen |
Cinema Online, 10 April 2012