Bulgarian Box Office Update - Weekend 6-8 April

Oh, it feels good to return in the box office

Though more or less a flop elsewhere, the reign of Wrath of The Titans in Bulgarian cinemas continues for a second week as the Sam Worthington's flick keeps the #1 position. With a fall of 53% and a total of BGN 390,635 so far, it however will probably not reach the final tally of Clash of The Titans.

The highest new entry comes in at #2. American Reunion manages to draw BGN 73,955 for the weekend. I personally expected more having in mind that for the first time in almost a year and a half, a Universal title is released in both the two core cinema chains in Bulgaria (Arena and Cinema City). I've written a lot on the problems between Cinema City and Universal, which for now seem to have been settled. Anyway, that doesn't help American Reunion to completely shake up the box office, but I still think that it will end its run with respectable figures. It's pointless to draw any comparisons with the previous titles of the franchise as they were released here before the era of the multiplexes but still the second pie made USD 94,968, while there are no official figures (on Boxofficemojo at least) for Pt 1 and 3. 

At #3 the second new entry comes in the shape of Pirates! Band Of Misfits. The Aardman animation attracts BGN 43,088 for the weekend. It's almost twice as high compared to the debut of Lorax and though not a striking result, the fact that animations have great legs and that there is no major animated release before Madagascar 3 will help Pirates! have a long and healthy run. 

To make a result north of the 1m threshold in the times before multiplexes and Internet is a serious achievement. Thus Titanic, which during its initial releases made USD 1.024m in Bulgaria, is definitely a real box office champion. The 3D re-release now adds BGN 42,519, which shows that many have chosen to rediscover the Cameron epic pic on the big screen. 

It's rare to see official figures for an arthouse movie but such were released for Once Upon A Time In Anadola. The Turkish title enters the countdown at #15 with BGN 1,743 and BGN 7,131, including festival showings. 

 

The top ten in full:

	movie	Change w/w	Result for the weekend (in BGN)	Total result (in BGN)
1.	Wrath of the Titans	-53%	90,606	390,635
2.	American Reunion	new	73,955	73,955
3.	Pirates!	new	43,088	43,088
4.	Titanic 3D	new	42,519	42,519
5.	Hunger Games	-39%	32,707	240,059
6.	The Foreigner	-31%	30,558	238,277
7.	John Carter	-62%	12,421	787,785
8.	Lorax	-74%!!!	11,193	104,385
9.	Mirror Mirror	-47%	9,594	88,352
10.	21 Jump Street	-54%	8,786	144,871

This week the top ten is left by This Means War. The action comedy has made BGN 436,894, and can definitely be considered a major achievement for its distributor. Considerable lower than the final tallies of Love.net and Shmenti Kapeli, Bulgarian comedy Rapid Reaction Corps leaves the first ten with BGN 300,946. It's not a disaster but I'm sure that the expectations for this one were set much higher. The release of Beauty and The Beast in 3D has also been a success as the classic has earned BGN 203,421 so far.

Compared to my last week's projections, American Reunion came below my BGN 120,000 projection, while Pirates! and Titanic 3D were close to my BGN 35,000 forecasts. 

Next weekend's projections:

Project X - BGN 45,000

Cold Light Of Day - BGN 64,000, including previews

Cabin in The Woods - BGN 34,000

(BGN 1 = USD 0.68/EUR 0.51)