MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) officially announced today, December 26, 2014 the top 4 movie entries to the 40th year of Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
MMDA Chairman and overall MMFF head Francis Tolentino said that "The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin,” “Feng Shui 2,” “My Big Bossing” and “Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2” are the top 4 films as of Friday.
The two-day gross earnings of the eight entries to MMFF is now at P182 million, higher by 12 percent to 13 percent than last year.
Tolentino said this year’s opening-day gross was P146 million, compared to P128 million on the first day last year.
As of 1 p.m. today, the ticket sales already reached P36 million, which is also higher than the P32 million of last year.
Meanwhile, the MMDA chairman refused to reveal the official MMFF ranking of the top 4 films.
“Ayaw namin mag-trending kasi. Hayaan muna natin mag-percolate, matapos ang awards night (on Saturday, December 27 at PICC) at i-validate ng moviegoers ang resulta ng awards. Ayaw namin ma-influence ang taste ng moviegoers.”
On the other hand, reliable sources said that "The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin" earned P53-million; "Feng Shui 2" --P31-M; "My Big Bossing" -- P28-million and "Kubot" --P11-millon."
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On an Instagram post of ABS-CBN's AdProm Head for Social Media & Publicity Eric John Salut, he said that "Feng Shui 2" has now the highest-opening day gross for any Filipino horror film at P31.4 million and "Praybeyt Benjamin" got the highest-opening gross for any Filipino film at P53.3 million."
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Tolentino expects the ongoing MMFF to gross P1.1- billion, a big leap from last year’s P996-million take at the end of the festival.
The other MMFF entries are “Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo”, “English Only Please”, “Shake, Rattle and Roll XV” and “Magnum Muslim .357.”
The next official announcements on the MMFF box office earnings will be on Sunday, December 28, Friday, January 2, 2015 and on Sunday, January 4, 2015.
The awards night is scheduled tomorrow night, December 27 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.
Proceeds of the annual holiday festival are being distributed to the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation Inc., Motion Picture and Anti-Film Piracy Council, Film Development Council of the Philippines and the Optical Media Board.