Hong Kong cinemas enjoy New Year bonanza

Things are slowly returning to normal across Chinese territories as the Lunar New Year festivities subside, and reports trickling in from the various film markets show that plenty of people have spent some part of their holidays at the cinema.

Here in Hong Kong, the New Year is traditionally the busiest time of the year for cinemas, with the city boasting its own brand of special Chinese New Year feel-good films packed with stars and celebrity cameos.

And that fact has this year been reflected once again in combined takings of HK$46,682,191 (4,395,017 euros) for the four days from February 3 to 6 - a rise of eight percent on last year.

Leading the way was I Love HK, starring local funnyman Eric Tsang in a film that follows two men who take it upon themselves to ignite a sense of social pride in their community. The film finished up with takings of close to HK$10.5 million (988,000 euros), to hold off the other New Year blockbuster, the romantic comedy All's Well Ends Well 2011, which took home HK$10 million (941,000 euros).

In Taiwan over the past week, The Green Hornet has been all the rage, with a six-day (February 2-7) gross of NT$22.5 million (570,000 euros) from the main market in Taipei to stretch its takings now to more than NT$100 million (2.5 million euros) across the country.

Receipts from the massive mainland China market were yet to be finalized but in Asia's other big film centers, Gantz - the live action rendering of a popular comic - pulled in almost US$4.8 million (3.5 million euros) across Japan to hold off Red, which took in around US$1.9 million (1.4 million euros), while in South Korea, the locally made cop thriller Chosun's Detective reported impressive returns of more than US$7.6 million (5.6 million euros) to hold off the Jack Black vehicle Gulliver's Travels, which picked up US$4.8 million (3.5 million euros).

Trailers:

I Love HK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClHguErL9DA
The Green Hornet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMA-taGtfXs
Gantz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvNmJp2BJ3o

MS