[2010.09.02] HONG KONG FILM DOES NOT BREAK INTO SUMMER TOP TEN

Summer vacation has ended. The Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association yesterday announced the box office. 40 films were released during the summer, 3 more than last year. 31 were foreign films and 9 were Chinese films. The total box office was HK$331,199,822, a 28% increase from last year's 258,597,264. Among the top ten highest grossing summer films, only one was a Chinese film -- the Feng Xiaogang directed, still in release AFTER SHOCK. Its cumulative box office was 15,116,901. The rest were all foreign films. Curiously four out of the top ten were 3D productions, including TOY STORY 3, SHREK FOREVER AFTER, fourth plaice STEP UP 3D with 17.28 million and ninth place DESPICABLE ME that exceeded 10 million. Obviously 3D has already gradually become the film production trend that was popular with the audience.

Still in release, the 3D animation TOY STORY 3 bested many big cast, big production Chinese and foreign films and topped the box office with 88,174,084. It had a chance to be the year's champion. The Leonardo DiCaprio starred INCEPTION made 54,131,337 in second. In third was the animation SHREK FOREVER AFTER. Hong Kong films lost some of their luster in the summer, without one that exceeded 10 million at the box office. The best performers were LA COMEDIE HUMAINE (YUN GAN HEI KET) and TRIPLE TAP (CHEUNG WONG JI WONG). The former box office was 7,292,519 and the latter was 7,150,086. The just released STOOL PIGEON (SIN YUN) made 5,979,453 over six days, an average daily box office of 1 million. The

momentum has been decent.