The Donnie Yen cop comedy Enter The Fat Dragon had the Chinese New Year field almost all to itself when it opened last Thursday.
The Hong Kong martial-arts flick about a portly policeman gobbled up a hefty $864,622 at the box office from Thursday to Sunday, making it the winner among the films opening last weekend.
It beat Hollywood action comedy Bad Boys For Life, which took in $468,000 over the same period.
Enter The Fat Dragon's success can be partly attributed to the lack of competition.
China-produced films of the season scheduled to open last week, including action flick The Rescue, starring Eddie Peng, and thriller Vanguard, starring Jackie Chan, were pulled at the last minute because their releases in China have been held back due to concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus in theatres.
Enter The Fat Dragon's weekend take is a strong showing for an Asian title when compared with record-setters such as martial-arts flick Kung Fu Yoga (2017), which in 2017 set Jackie Chan's highest Thursday to Sunday take in Singapore with a haul of $1.37 million.
The husky earnings for Enter The Fat Dragon also indicate that, last weekend at least, Singaporeans were not avoiding the cinema crowds.
A Golden Village spokesman says: "It's been business as usual for Golden Village. We have not noticed any decline in ticket sales nor attendance at our cinemas."
Mr Wayne Heng, 29, who works in finance, watched Enter The Fat Dragon twice, once on Thursday with his wife, and again on Saturday with friends in between Chinese New Year house visits.
The reduced number of films did not affect his choice of film as he had already made up his mind after noticing the trailers and posters.
He had enjoyed Yen's Ip Man series of four martial arts films (2008 to 2019) and felt the new movie would be right up his alley.
"It is a good movie. It has strong action and comedy and it's a romantic story too. When my friends, who hadn't seen it, suggested we watch it on Saturday, I didn't mind at all," he says.
The packed hall at Shaw Lido on Saturday afternoon showed that few, if any, had been put off by the idea of infection, he adds.
A Shaw spokesman says: "Business and box office were normal over the weekend."
As of yesterday, 132 people in China have died from the virus, with seven confirmed cases of the disease in Singapore.
Chan and local film-maker Jack Neo are the traditional kings of the Chinese New Year movie box office.
In 2015, Neo's military comedy Ah Boys To Men 3: Frogmen earned $2.8 million over a four-day Chinese New Year opening weekend, setting an opening-weekend record for an Asian title.
Animated feature Jiang Ziya: Legend Of Deification and comedy Detective Chinatown 3 were also held back from release last week.
Also opening last week was the Hong Kong romantic comedy All's Well Ends Well 2020, which earned $91,136.
Several films due to open this week had their releases moved up a week to fill the gaps. These include the Hong Kong martial-arts comedy The Grand Grandmaster, which earned $32,000. Malaysian drama A Moment Of Happiness was also moved up and it made $25,000.
