Philippine Box Office Roundup 2

NOTE: Yesterday I posted a similar entry but it only covered the box office data as of Feb. 19 but since Box Office Mojo already released a new report, I decided to delete the entry as it also had some errors (Underworld: Awakening's numbers in particular).

I did my first Philippine Box Office roundup last week and I think this is going to be a regular feature on this blog, we'll see if I can keep it up! Anyway, some reminders first before I proceed with my roundup:

• The following box office stats are from the ever awesome Box Office Mojo's Philippine Box Office Index. Thus, my box office comparisons and analysis are only limited to what Box Office Mojo has in its records
• Studios and local distributors sometimes issues press releases about the box office performance of their movies and there are instances that they do not exactly match the data Box Office Mojo have in hand. I'm not sure how wide Box Office Mojo's scope is with our local theaters but for the purposes of a consistent discussion and analysis I will only focus on the numbers posted at Box Office Mojo.
  
• I added some stuff like the Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol box office for 2012 since Box Office Mojo does not include that 2011 holdover on their Top Movies 2012 list. Meanwhile the box office numbers for the holdovers from the MMFF last year are not on BOM's list so they're not on here as well.

***

Star Cinema's latest romantic comedy UnOfficially Yours unseats Underworld: Awakening as the top movie in the Philippine Box Office so far this 2012. Since it's release on February 15, the John Lloyd Cruz-Angel Locsin movie already earned $2.7 million (113 million PHP) easily taking the top spot away from Underworld: Awakening which took $2.4 million (102 million PHP). This is John Lloyd's first movie since 2010's My Amnesia Girl which earned $3.2 million (~144 million PHP) which was the top local movie (outside the MMFF entries) of that year. The young actor has been a consistent box office draw as all of his movies since 2007 (the year Box Office Mojo started monitoring the Philippine Box Office) all crossed the 100 million PHP threshold. Meanwhile, in just two weeks Unofficially Yours almost matched Angel Locsin's highest grossing movie In The Name of Love which earned $2.7 million or around 116 million pesos last year. With UnOfficially Yours still on wide release on its 3rd week the movie will definitely surpass In The Name of Love's gross.

Last week I said that Underworld: Awakening which was standing at 96 million PHP at that time was not going to cross the 100 million PHP threshold but I was proven wrong as the movie already earned 102 million PHP. Meanwhile, Family adventure movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island surpasses Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for the 3rd spot as the former already earned $1.5 million (64 million PHP) compared to the latter's cume of $1.4 million (61 million PHP).

Opening solidly in the country is the critically panned Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance which earned $1.2 million (52 million PHP) since opening in theaters last Feb. 17. The first Ghost Rider earned $1.7 million (~82 million PHP) in 2007 when the Peso-Dollar exchange rate was hovering around $1=46 PHP.

Two popcorn comedy movies that opened last week easily beat the the two "Oscar" movies that were released two weeks ago. Those two comedies are This Means War and Jack and Jill which earned $315K (13.4 million PHP) and $196K (8.3 million PHP), respectively while the two "Oscar" movies were Hugo and The Descendants which both earned a paltry #103K (4.4 million PHP) and $63K (2.7 million PHP), respectively. It should be noted that Hugo was only available on 3D screens when it was shown here last Feb. 15. Sad to see that such movies are tough sells in the country. But at least they earned better than the Twilight spoof movie Breaking Wind ($31K / 1.3 million pesos) which opened the same week as those movies.

Cesar Montano's return to action movies was not warmly received as Hitman just earned $88K (3.7 million PHP) since the movie opened last week, Feb. 22. Other Feb. 22 releases that didn't set fire on the local box office are the 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast with $30K (1.3 million PHP) and "post-dated" horror flick 11-11-11 that earned $26K (1.1 million PHP).

Beauty and the Beast 3D is so far the weakest 3D re-releases of classic movies we had recently. And we actually had 3 of those in the past 3 months: The Lion King 3D last December earned 5 million PHP while the Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace 3D nabbed 4 million PHP a couple of weeks back. There's one more 3D re-release this year and that is the box office phenomenon Titanic on April 7. I never saw the movie in the theaters because I was too young then so I'm excited to see this one on the big screen and I wonder if other Pinoys are excited as well. Well let's wait and see.

Check out the Philippine box office charts below for the full list which I originally posted at Box Office Theory forum:

Top Movies for 2012 To Date (as of Feb. 26, 2012)

Dollars

1. UnOfficially Yours - $2,659,513
2. Underworld Awakening -$2,391, 207
3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - $1,511,202
4. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - $1,460,261
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - $1,323,682
6. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - $1,231,358
7. *Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - $1,187,103
8. The Vow - $1,186,547
9. Chronicle - $823,086
10. The Darkest Hour - $810,312 -
11. A Mother's Story - $574,764
12. My Cactus Heart - $542,331
13. This Means War - $315,206
14. Safe House - $290,797
15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $221,495
16. Contraband - $214,284
17. Jack and Jill - $196,605
18. We Bought a Zoo - $131,497
19. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (in 3D) - $107,913
20. Hugo - $103,206
21. The Grey - $94,296
22. Hitman - $88,650
23. The Descendants - $63,591
24. The Woman in Black - $61,869
25. Haywire - $55,483
26. J.Edgar - $48,996
27. Man on a Ledge - $37,513
28. Breaking Wind - $31,914
29. Beauty and the Beast - $30,369
30. Coriolanus - $27,332
31. 11-11-11 - $26,362

Pesos

1. UnOfficially Yours - 113,577,694 PHP
2. Underworld Awakening - 102,119,364 PHP
3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - 64,537,695 PHP
4. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - 61,951,573 PHP
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - 56,157,209 PHP
6. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - 52,586,621 PHP
7. *Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - 50,696,658 PHP
8. The Vow - 50,672,913 PHP
9. Chronicle -35,150,875 PHP
10. The Darkest Hour - 34,605,346 PHP
11. A Mother's Story - 24,815,781 PHP
12. My Cactus Heart - 23,008,393 PHP
13. This Means War - 13,461,250 PHP
14. Safe House - 12,418,835 PHP
15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 9,432,564 PHP
16. Contraband - 9,151,255 PHP
17. Jack and Jill - 8,396,252 PHP
18. We Bought a Zoo - 5,568,319 PHP
19. Star Wars Episode 1 3D - 4,595,572 PHP
20. Hugo - 4,407,536 PHP
21. The Grey - 4,000,508 PHP
22. Hitman - 3,785,905 PHP
23. The Descendants - 2,715,730 PHP
24. The Woman in Black - 2,624,792 PHP
25. Haywire - 2,365,429 PHP
26. J.Edgar - 2,091,152 PHP
27. Man on a Ledge - 1,588,510 PHP
28. Breaking Wind -1,359,086 PHP
29. Beauty and the Beast (3D) 1,296,945 PHP
30. Coriolanus - 1,180,075 PHP
31. 11-11-11 - 1,125,821 PHP

* For 2012 only. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol went back to theaters on Jan. 8 and it's the only foreign movie holdover from 2011. Total box office: $3,969,223 (168,442,905 PHP)