A 'Fantastic' Week in the Box Office: 'The Unmarried Wife' & 'Fantastic Beasts' both debut north of PHP 100 million

Angelica Panganiban & Dingdong Dantes in The Unmarried Wife

A fantastic week indeed.

Star Cinema's The Unmarried Wife and Warner Bros' Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find When were both off to fantastic starts. It's interesting that both opened at the same week (only separated by their opening days which was only one day apart) and managed to open well without hurting each other. It's something that only happens during the MMFF season. It also proves how large and diverse the audiences are now here in the Philippines. So, let's start the breakdown:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

In first place, J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opened to a magical PHP 124.42 million it its first four days. According to Warner Bros., this is their highest November opening number beating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (PHP 105 million). It's also their third highest opening gross this year, behind more-hyped Suicide Squad (PHP 161 million) and Batman v Superman (PHP 200 million). It shows how strong the Potter brand is here in the country (although not as high as the Transformers or Marvel brand). With only a week remaining before Vice Ganda, Vic Sotto & Moana battle each other, Fantastic Beasts can still push its numbers up to PHP 250 million which is a good start for this franchise.

Fun data: Click Here for the theaters who got a big share of Beasts's PHP 124 million opening.

Meanwhile in second place, Star Cinema's adult drama The Unmarried Wife captured PHP 100 million in its first week (including its Monday gross). This is in line with this year's Just the 3 Of Us which also passed 100 million in 6 days. What's more impressive is that this is in line with Panganiban/Dantes previous starrer One More Try (PHP 102 million in 6 days) which opened during an MMFF season. Word of mouth seems good with this one. Theater count for this one on its second week was increased which is a good sign of stronger demand (while Fantastic Beasts decreased, a big wow). PHP 200 million seems locked at this point but anything above that is still a question considering the big competition it will face on November 30.

Box Office Updates:

Doctor Strange continues its fantastic run in the country, In three weeks, the Marvel hero has now raked $ 6.11 million (est. PHP 300 million) in the country. This is already higher than all of the Marvel superhero origin movies here in the country. If it can juice up more, this has a chance to pass even sequels like X-Men: Days of Future Past  ($ 7 M) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($ 7.04 million). 

Photo Source: Joy of Asia, Warner Bros.
November16-20, 2016 Box Office. Sorry for the late post!