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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.08.01 ~ 2014.08.03

Records tumble in the wake of Kim Han-min's awesome "Admiral"… 

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Kim Han-min's period epic "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" soared into the record books over the weekend to become the first film to break a million admissions in a single day. Over the weekend Kim's big-budget blockbuster claimed 3.3M admissions (or 65.7% of ticket sales) over 1,586 screens to force the recently released "KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" down to third. The only other films to sell more than 45K tickets were "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and "Guardians of the Galaxy", the rest simply made up the numbers as these four favourites devoured over 97% of the box office pie.

Last weekend the animated sequel "How To Train Your Dragon 2" occupied second with just over 735K, but despite the storm going on around it, DreamWorks' latest did managed to hold onto silver as "KUNDO" leapfrogged its way down to third. Yoon Jong-bin's "KUNDO" took a big hit when Kim's legend took to the helm, and the 2M+ from last weekend was whittled away to 515K (10.18%) here. However that short reign was enough time for it secure it over 4.4M admissions, making it the fourth highest-grossing Korea film of the year behind Kim's amazing admiral.

Quietly plodding along in fourth was the latest superhero film from Marvel Comics. The much-anticipated "Guardians of the Galaxy" opened its Korean account with a solid, although comparatively modest, 459K admissions (9.7%) over just 539 screens. The film cost $170M to make, and has already recuperated $160M of that sum in less than a week. Korean audiences, however, are thoroughly enjoying a string of 'historical' hits, and with "Pirates" set for release next week the box office is going to be seriously busy and bulging for the better.

The American animation "Free Birds" followed in fifth with just 45.8K (0.8%) to fly home about, while the "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" sat in sixth with 44K (0.85) of its own. The latest in the "Planet of the Apes" films has been in charts since early last month, and during its run has amassed over $30.2M (3.9M admissions). Trailing off from the top tier even further now, and the French comedy drama "Attila Marcel" by Sylvain Chomet managed to scamper away with 16K, while over 13K filmgoers stormed to see Lee Seok-hoon's period adventure film "Pirates" (officially due out next week), which stars Kim Nam-gil, Son Ye-jin, Yoo Hae-jin, Lee Kyung-young, and Oh Dal-soo. Closing out this bustling weekend was Lisa Azuelos' "Quantum Love" (6.8K) and the American comedy drama "Frances Ha" (6.1K).

 

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] 2014.07.25 ~ 2014.07.27

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.08.01 - 2014.08.03 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" (명량-회오리바다) 2014/07/30 3 349 032 4 759 288
2 "How To Train Your Dragon 2"   575 116 2 114 609
3 "KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" (군도:민란의 시대) 2014/07/23 515 664 4 472 339
4 "Guardians of the Galaxy"   459 816 582 729
5 "Free Birds"   45 855 62 207
6 "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"   44 076 3 981 746
7 "Attila Marcel"   16 397 46 458
8 "Pirates" (해적: 바다로 간 산적) 2014/08/06 13 553 32 841
9 "Quantum Love (Une rencontre)"   6 891 10 333
10 "Frances Ha"   6 115 56 408
Korean movies only  
  "The Divine Move" (신의 한수) 2014/07/03 3 045 3 563 713
  "The Cardinal" (그 사람 추기경) 2014/08/07 505 3 816
  "The Stone" (스톤) 2014/06/12 504 18 050
  "Non-Fiction Diary" (논픽션 다이어리) 2014/07/17 351 5 615
  "Affair" (밀애) 2014/07/24 254 4 770
  "Liberal Wife '81" ( 자유부인 '81, 1981) - Re-release   195 4 912
  "Santa Barbara" (산타바바라) 2014/07/17 152 16 017
  "18 - Eighteen Noir" (18: 우리들의 성장 느와르) 2014/08/14 126 126
  "BLACKDEAL" (블랙딜) 2014/07/03 121 8 549
  "The Suffered" (피해자들) 2014/07/31 64 308

 

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

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