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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.01.10 ~ 2014.01.12

"The Attorney" enjoys its fourth straight week at the top…

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Yang Woo-seok's "The Attorney" enjoyed its fourth week atop the Korean box office, moving the Song Kang-ho-studded feature closer to a whopping 10 million admissions. Yang's true-life drama added 923, 790 (32.2%) admissions to bump its total tally to 9.2M since its release late last month. It was once again joined in second by Won Shin-yun's action thriller "The Suspect", a modern spy flick that has quietly amassed 3.7M in the shadow of Yang's popular piece. The only other local feature to score a top ten finish this past weekend was Seong Si-heup's comedy "Plan Man"; the film, which stars Jung Jae-young and Han Ji-min, managed just 274, 209 (10.8%) in its first weekend out.

"The Attorney" and "The Suspect" have been comfortably holding down the top two places for three weeks now, a duet has yet to be broken but will face more pressure later this month as things start to heat up; but for the now these two high-flying features have had no problem relieving the locals of their hard-earned won. "The Suspect", actor Gong Yoo's first action role, snuck another 400, 547 (13.8%) admissions away from the rest of the pack and has thus far earned $25.4M locally. The highest foreign flick came in the form of "Tarzan 3D", a new entry into the chart from Germany that managed to swing away with 300, 727 (12.4%) over 527 screens. Seong Si-heup's "Plan Man" was close on its heel, but was only shown at 442 screens and failed to help secure a completely Korean podium finish. It's not a great start for Seong's debut effort; a talent director who has been involved in such productions as "The Journals of Musan", "A Dirty Carnival", and "The Chaser". It's still early days though, but first impressions and the reviews out thus far have been underwhelming and suggest this one may struggle to find traction from here.

The other big foreign release was Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" (231, 571 – 8.1%), an American biographical based on Jordan Belfort's memoirs. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a New York stockbroker that, during the 1990s, engages in various fraudulent acts and corruption scandals towards living the high life. The film has received mixed reviews and is few million shy of breaking even (the film was made for $100M and has thus far grossed $97M worldwide). That Hollywood highlight was tailed by the Japanese animation "Pokemon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend of Awakened", it claimed 178, 878 (6.2%) admissions, from 406 screens, a smidge more that the 395 given to "The Wolf of Wall Street", which was good enough for sixth.

Last weekend "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" entered the charts in third, but it took a serious tumble here as it fell all the way to seventh with just 132, 657 (5.4%). Thus far Ben Stiller's film has raked in just $5.3M in Korea, but has proved profitable around the world having already surpassed it $90M budget by grossing $121.5M. The film made its premiere at the New York Film Festival and is based off of James Thurber's 1939 short story of the same name. "About Time" (105, 614 – 3.7%), "The House of Magic" (64, 668 – 1.9%), and "Ender's Game" (37, 374 – 1.2%) brought in the rear as they all gravitated toward the wrong end of the chart. "About Time" has now spent six week's in Korea's top ten, during which the British drama has managed to amass 3.2M admissions ($22.6M). The film entered the chart early in December in first (with 477, 267 admissions during quieter times), but has been dethroned by "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and then "The Attorney".

 

What's coming out next week in Korea?: [HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...

Last weekend's report: [HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.01.03 - 2014.01.05

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.01.10 - 2014.01.12 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Attorney" (변호인) 2013/12/19 799 223 9 263 974
2 "The Suspect" (용의자) 2013/12/24 345 347 3 721 607
3 "Tarzan 3D"   300 716 344 932
4 "Plan Man" (플랜맨) 2014/01/09 274 207 345 031
5 "The Wolf of Wall Street"   193 285 233 031
6 "Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened (劇場版ポケットモンスター ベストウイッシュ 神速のゲノセクト ミュウツー覚醒)"   178 877 225 602
7 "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"   132 657 772 704
8 "About Time"   88 318 3 268 567
9 "The House of Magic"   53 771 880 401
10 "Ender's Game"   31 715 642 839
Korean movies only  
  "Miss Granny" (수상한 그녀) 2014/01/23 7 268 15 150
  "Way Back Home" (집으로 가는 길) 2013/12/12 3 204 1 849 732
  "Another Family" (또 하나의 약속) 2014/02/06 792 2 813
  "Lazy Hitchhikers' Tour de Europe" (잉여들의 히치하이킹) 2013/11/28 587 24 869
  "Black Gospel" (블랙가스펠) 2013/11/14 442 51 808
  "SHIVA, Throw Your Life" (시바, 인생을 던져) 2013/12/19 337 4 029
  "Seopyeonje (서편제, 1993) - Re-release"   283 714
  "The Dinner - 2013" (만찬) 2014/01/23 252 323
  "Winter Woman (겨울여자, 1977) - Re-release"   214 4 563
  "The Wedding Day (시집가는 날, 1957) - Re-release"   135 136

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com@KoreaOnTheCouch

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