Assassin's Creed leads the post-MMFF box office; 'Passengers' & 'Mang Kepweng Returns' start solid

Assassin's Creed. Source: IGN

The MMFF season has ended (early) and the box office is back to normal. Fox's Assassin's Creed took up the first place followed by Sony's Passengers. Meanwhile, Mang Kepweng Returns was up to a solid start.

Assassin's Creed captured $ 1.1 million (est. PHP 55 million) in its first week. This is in line with last year's Warcraft ($ 1.3 million) which is also a video game adaptation. That movie crashed after that and ended its run with $2.4 million. Reviews haven't been kind to Creed as well. On the positive side, competition will be calmer next week: Star Cinema's Extra Service will be released which is far from Creed's target demo. Tough competition will begin on January 18 (xXx: Return of Zander Cage & Live by Night). A total north of $ 2.5 million seems likely.

In second place, Sony's sci-fi romance Passengers starring Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Pratt also managed to do good business with $ 775K in 153 screens. This is 22% higher than 2013's Gravity. Again, calm competition could give it a strong hold next week which is really needed for this high budgeted original movie that made good-not-great business in the U.S.

Mang Kepweng Returns was reported to open with PHP 10 million on its first day. This is lower than Vhong Navarro's previous pic Da Possessed (PHP 17 million) but that one opened on a Black Saturday (a proven strong box office day). With tough competition (MMFF entries are still playing in theaters), this is actually a strong opening. But with Extra Service coming next week, it would be hard for this one to leg out. A total north of PHP 50-60 million is possible.

Source: Deadline

Philippines Box Office (January 4-8, 2017)