Star Cinema and Viva Film’s Metro Manila Film Festival entry The Mall The Merrier ranked number 1 in the unofficial ranking for festival’s first day of showing.
Currently, the Vice Ganda-Anne Curtis movie is the top-grossing film based on the unofficial box office results of the MMFF which started on Christmas Day, December 25.
Following The Mall, The Merrier is Coco Martins’s 3Pol Trobol: Huli Ka Balbon which also stars Jennylyn Mercado. Coco’s films have always been a top contender in the MMFF box office ever since he joined the annual film festival.
Surprisingly, Aga Muhlach’s Pinoy adaptation of the Miracle in Cell No.7 ranked third, besting another former top grosser contender Vic Sotto with Mission Unstapabol: The Don Identity which is in the number 4 position.
Aga was said to be overwhelmed by the good reviews of his film and the great word-of-mouth which is attracting moviegoers. Miracle in Cell No.7 is Aga’s MMFF comeback after 26 years. His last film that qualified for the film fest was May Minamahal in 1993 which won Second Best Picture, Best Director, Best Story, and Best Screenplay for Jose Javier Reyes, and Best Actor for Aga.
Meanwhile, the rest of the rankings include the horror film Sunod in number 5, Brillante Mendoza’s Mindanao in number 6, Iza Calzado’s Culion in number 7 and Write About Love in number 8.
Mindanao director Brillante Mendoza was said to have complained about the faulty projector in one of the cinema’s showing his film. There were also rumors of cinemas pulling out Mindanao because of its performance at the box office.
