It should came as no surprise that action and adventure films dominated the box office in Maltese cinemas during 2012, with James Bond successfully fighting off a plethora of superheroes to top the year’s box office, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the franchise in style.
The Hunger Games ran for a whopping 22 weeks, followed by Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which ran for 16 weeks
More of that later. KRS Film Distributors released 163 films during the year, with, as can be expected, productions from the US and the UK dominating the list, and a mix of foreign-language movies from Europe, Canada, the Far East and Australia. Thirty-two films were released in digital 3D.
The figures released by KRS include details of the films that ran for the longest period during 2012. This list is dominated by The Hunger Games, which ran for a whopping 22 weeks.
This is followed by Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which ran for 16 weeks; Mirror Mirror and Marvel’s Avengers Assemble at 15; The Lucky One at 14 (thanks no doubt to the presence of teen heartthrob Zac Efron) and Dark Shadows, The Dictator, The Amazing Spider-Man, Ted and Killing Them Softly running for 13.
Taken 2 and Skyfall, which ran for 12 and 11 weeks respectively during 2012, are still on release; the latter will probably be around for a few weeks’ more.
On analysing the Top 10 films of the year, the films that fill the Top Three spots come as no surprise at all, with Skyfall coming out on top, ahead of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and The Dark Knight Rises.
It is interesting to note that when comparing the performance of these three films to their respective performance in the UK and US markets, Malta’s box office more or less reflected that of the UK, with Skyfall coming in at No. 1 in both countries, with the second and third spots reversed. The US box office was dominated by Marvel’s Avengers Assemble followed by The Dark Knight Rises, with The Hunger Games in third place, the latter placing 14th here in Malta.
Moving on down Malta’s Top 10, The Amazing Spider-Man bit on the heels of its comic-book cohorts in a respectable fourth place, while the excellent fifth place for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey underscores how keenly anticipated it was, considering the movie earned that spot after only 19 days on release up to the end of the year.
Comedy Ted had a very strong showing, the foul-mouthed cuddly toy firmly ensconced in sixth place. Despite lukewarm reviews and pretty much retreading the same ground as Taken, Taken 2 landed in seventh – and is still attracting audiences.
Ice Age 4: Continental Drift and Puss in Boots at eighth and ninth respectively represent the animated canon, while – and this is probably the most surprising statistic – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II only managed 10th place. True, this mirrors the position reached by the first part the final instalment of the hugely popular franchise this time last year, yet given it’s the end, expectations for its overall performance may have been higher.