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Monday Update, writethru after Sunday 10:16Am post: Asia continues to power international box office with local titles atop the charts. This is a trend we can expect to carry on as the Hollywood studios have widely vacated the rest of 2020, and as Europe begins a re-closing process amid coronavirus spikes.

In just the last week, France shuttered its cinemas while the country went into a second lockdown — currently expected to last until early December. The UK will enter another confinement period on November 5 and Germany will close its cinemas from today. Last weekend, Italy said it was shutting down and Spain is under a curfew. Good times…

This weekend, China’s Korean War epic The Sacrifice led box office in the Middle Kingdom with an estimated $28.9M frame and has now grossed $106.4M after two sessions. Behind it, Japanese anime Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna arrived in China after...

Patriotic and gritty war film “The Sacrifice” topped the mainland Chinese box office for the second week. It earned $28.6 million over the weekend, lifting its ten-day cumulative score to $106 million, according to data from Artisan Gateway.

Of that weekend score, some $1.6 million was earned from 670 Imax screens. The Imax box office total for the film now stands at $6M, or some 5.5% of its 10-day overall total.

Japanese animated feature, “Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution” was the weekend’s premier new release. It ranked second with a $9.60 million three-day opening performance.

Omnibus, propaganda film “My Country, My Hometown” slipped to third place with a $7.8 million score in its fifth weekend of release. Its cumulative total now stands at $402 million, making it one of the biggest films anywhere in the world this year.

Chinese romantic comedy, “Oversize Love” about an overweight woman who miraculously loses the pounds, placed fourth. It earned $3.0 million in its three-day opening.

War film “Sacrifice” got off to a heroic start at the China box office on Friday, likely setting the tone for another good weekend in Chinese cinemas, and a barrage of films in the same canon.

By 7pm local time on its opening day, “Sacrifice” had notched up RMB74.1 million, or $11 million at current rates of exchange.

First audiences appear to have shown their critical approval too. Early viewer feedback via cinema ticketing agency Maoyan gives “Sacrifice” an excellent score of 9.4 out of 10, while rival ticketing agency Taopiaopiao viewers scored it a notch higher at 9.5. The more thoughtful cinephile site Douban has not yet given it a score.

Taken together, the film’s early box office and approval ratings allowed Maoyan to forecast that “Sacrifice” could run on to score RMB2.5 billion or $373 million. It that transpires, it would make it one of the top-grossing films anywhere in the world this year.

Monday Update, writethru after Sunday 11:12Am post: Big news this weekend out of Japan where anime adaptation Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train shattered all-time opening records. The film, which debuted on Friday October 16, as opposed to the usual Saturday/Sunday session, grossed $44M (4.623B yen) across the three-day. It is the global box office leader this weekend and Japan’s biggest launch in industry history.

This is a stunning debut which we hear commandeered 84% of the market with exits at 4.5 out of 5 stars. Putting the opening into some perspective, Frozen 2 last year launched to a 3-day of $18.2M at historical rates. Demon Slayer also set a new IMAX record, opening 18% bigger in the format than previous champ Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, to become the top IMAX Japan opener ever with $2.27M (238M yen) from 38 screens. Grosses increased incrementally over the weekend for IMAX.

Such was...