"The Last Witch Hunter" claims first
27 Oct – It was not a good week for new movies in the U.S. but some did manage to find salvation at the Malaysia and Singapore weekend box office for 22 to 25 October 2015.
Breck Eisner's "The Last Witch Hunter" is one such movie. The Vin Diesel-starrer did not manage to break into the top three on its opening weekend in the U.S., though managed to place the highest among other hopefuls such as Jon Chu's "Jem and the Holograms", the live-action adaptation that failed to attract both old and new fans; Barry Levinson's "Rock the Kasbah", even the presence of Bill Murray, Bruce Willis and Zooey Deschanel couldn't save the comedy drama; and Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette", where Meryl Streep makes her most glorified cameo.
This spelled good news for "The Martian", however. The lack of competition propelled the Ridley Scott sci-fi action movie back to number one, grossing USD15.7 million over the weekend, based on Box Office Mojo stats. The Matt Damon-starrer has made USD384.6 million worldwide to date.
Rob Letterman's "Goosebumps" took a little tumble, swapping spots with "The Martian". Now locked in at number two, the Jack Black movie took in another USD15.5 last weekend, contributing to its now USD 52.9 million worldwide gross.
"Bridge of Spies" stayed put at number three, the Steven Spielberg-directed and Tom Hanks-starring spy thriller managed to gross another USD11.3 million. Worldwide, it currently has grossed USD39.7 million.
"The Last Witch Hunter" might have burned and crashed at the U.S. weekend box office but it's a different story over in Malaysia. The "Fast and Furious" star who leads the supernatural action movie was arguably one of the reasons why fans flocked the cinemas; there's no denying Vin Diesel's star power in the region.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese rom-com "Our Times" made an impressive leap from number seven to number two within a week. Maybe fans will get to see the cast and director return to Malaysia for a special performance after all, as promised during their recent visit to the country to promote the movie.
"Goosebumps" slid down two places to number three, having lost the top spot to the newly released witch-hunting movie.
Over in Singapore, the weekend box office was conquered by new releases. Similarly, "The Last Witch Hunter" opened at number one. "Our Times", the Frankie Chen directorial debut starring Vivian Sung, Darren Wang and Dino Lee, managed to place second on its opening weekend.
Robert Zemeckis's "The Walk" is another movie that failed to impress in the U.S. but did manage to rise up high in Southeast Asia. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as French high-wire artist Philippe Petit in the movie that opened third in Singapore. It did not do so shabbily in neighbouring country Malaysia because it did manage to open fourth there.
Malaysia's other new releases for last weekend are "The Walk", "10 Endrathukulla", "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan", "Love, Supermoon", "Last Shift", "Shaandaar", "Blunt Force Trauma", "Kanche" and "Muthukumar Wanted".
Singapore also saw the releases of these movies: "Shaandaar", "Naanum Rowdy Dhaan" and "10 Endrathukulla".
