[2020.08.29] PENINSULA PASSES HK$ 1.2 MILLION IN HALF A DAY

courtesy of singtao.com

ue to the pandemic showing signs of subsiding, cinemas after six weeks of suspension yesterday finally resumed operation. Crowds appeared at many cinemas as long lines formed for tickets. The Korean hit film TRAIN TO BUSAN's sequel PENINSULA yesterday already passed the HK$ 1 million mark box office by half a day, breaking the opening day box office record under the social distancing order.

According to the Hong Kong Motion Pictures Industry Association, as of 4PM PENINSULA yesterday already reached HK$ 1,180,859 in half a day of release. PENINSULA opened in Asia on July 15th, and had box office success across the board. With 352,926 viewers it became the highest single day opening box office champion this year. Its Taiwan opening day box office was over NT$ 24 million, surpassing its predecessor TRAIN TO BUSAN. In Singapore it even surpassed another hit Korean film ALONG WITH THE GODS: THE LAST 49 DAYS and set the highest opening day box office for a Korean film.

However the box office's biggest obstacle aside from the pandemic was the rampant online piracy. Earlier theater pirated version already appeared on Mainland sites; on the day of Hong Kong cinema's return, a high definition pirated version was available for free. Unfortunately the Hong Kong box office might be impacted.

As for Hong Kong films, domestic film industry rising stars Terrance Lau Chun Him, Cecilia Choi Sze Wan starred BEYOND THE DREAM (WAN OI) was already a hit before the cinema closings. At the time it already swept up HK$ 8.8 million at the box office. Yesterday when the cinemas re-opened the run continued. As of 4PM its box office was HK$ 195,202, with the cumulative box office before the closing the film has already passed the HK$ 9 million mark. Yesterday the film company posted another BEYOND THE DREAM production video to continue to promote the film.

The Aaron Kwok Fu Sing starred Hong Kong film I'M LIVIN' IT (MAK LO YUN) was slated for a beginning of the year release. Yet due to the pandemic it was postponed. Yesterday the film announced that due to the return of cinema it will be released simultaneously on September 17th in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. The film company continued to release a lot of promotional material, including character portrait posters with various themes that brought out the inner voice of the characters. The first one was a concept poster of Kwok Fu Sing's character. Sing Sing gave a lot of suggestions to the making of this poster and it was his favorite. Sing Sing hoped that everyone would go to the movies to support I'M LIVIN' IT, from which they would be more able to relate this meaning of this poster.

As for the Herman Yau Lai To directed and Andy Lau Tak Wa produced and starred new film SHOCK WAVE 2 (CHAK DAN JUEN GA 2), "Equal Write Union Hong Kong" expressed its displeasure over the trailer and the poster's lack of screenwriter credits. Universe film yesterday responded, "Because the cinemas re-opened, we understood that the audience demand for film releases in the second half of the year. Thus we first released a brief video to remind viewer friends to keep an eye on the release date. Later we will release official poster and trailer, which would have the strong line up of the creative units."