It’s official: Star Cinema can still open an original. After months of murmurs in the industry about whether local films can still do well at the box office, particularly outside the Metro Manila Film Festival, Meet, Greet & Bye has arrived to calm everyone’s nerves.
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| (C) Star Cinema |
The Cathy Garcia-Sampana drama opened to $1,439,870 (₱85 million) during the week of November 12–16, 2025. For the first time since My Love Will Make You Disappear, the figure was reported by Box Office Mojo, an American box-office revenue tracking website. This is a very impressive opening for a local original drama and is expected to play well until the end of the month. The studio also opted to keep regular ticket pricing this year for the film.
What went right? For starters, it’s a well-packaged project from the country’s top local studio. Garcia-Sampana clearly still knows how to deliver a film that resonates with the Filipino audience. Aside from the premise, the casting is spot-on: not everyone is a consistent draw, but uniting them allows the film to reach more viewers. Piolo Pascual is a familiar figure across every demographic. Joshua Garcia, Belle Mariano, and Juan Karlos Labajo are rising stars with substantial followings. And to cap it off, Maricel Soriano is a national treasure. It’s familiar by design: think Seven Sundays or Four Sisters and a Wedding, both also directed by Garcia-Sampana.
Star Cinema also chose a release date similar to when Hello, Love, Again broke records last year. Equipped with the studio’s marketing machinery, the film was set up to succeed.
The film also posted solid overseas numbers: $10K in New Zealand, $35K in Australia, and $57K in the United Arab Emirates. While Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 are bound to eat up some screens, the strong local opening ensures that Meet, Greet & Bye can stay in theaters for a while.
Predator: Badlands saw a much steeper decline in the Philippines compared to the United States. The film grossed $163,049 (₱9.5 million), a solid 42% drop from last week. In two weeks, it has already collected $535,262 (₱31.4 million) in the country.
The same can’t be said for Bugonia, as the Yorgos Lanthimos film earned $4,588 (₱270K) in its second week, down a massive 80%. It didn’t help that cinephiles were preoccupied with the 2025 edition of QCinema (November 14), which played buzzy films including Hamnet and Human Resource and rereleases including Linda Linda Linda.
Ayala Malls Cinemas exclusive Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere officially opened this week with a paltry $1,171 (₱68K). Springsteen is not exactly a huge act in the country, and not even The Bear star Jeremy Allen White could ignite interest.
