Although the box office of Seven Swords came last among that of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for the three major cities, it did out performed that of another title showing around the same period - Initial D.
The box office of Seven Swords scored 2.72 million Yuan on its first three days. Comparing to the first three day box office of Initial D at 2.68 million Yuan, Seven Swords established a surprisingly good grade.
In fact, its box office came very close to that of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. According to the Promotion Manager of Shanghai United Cinema Network, Wu He-hu, Although Seven Swords experienced uncertainty a few days before its official release because of some not-so-good words of month, however, I personally don't think those should be accounted for.
After all, the viewpoints can only come from a small group of reporters from the media who have the chance to screen the title before its official release. And these words of month are in proportional to the size of the market." Wu He-hu is actually very optimistic about Seven Swords and believes that the title has the possibility of hinting the 100million mark. He further points out that Seven Swords is not only equipped with the elements of a big hit title, but it is also released at a very good time.
Unlike Initial D that ran into Batman Begins and Mr & Mrs Smith and thus ended up doing not as expected in the box office result, Seven Swords occupies a good 20 days' solo and is forecasted to have enough strength to sail on and perform well in Shanghai.
(hkfilmart August 5, 2005)
