Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.03.24 - 2017.03.26

A flood of new entries fail to subdue "Beauty and the Beast"...

Despite the flood of new entries, foreign and domestic, Disney's musical fantasy "Beauty and the Beast" narrowly retained pole position by capturing 40.98% of the sales. With the million admissions the film scored over the weekend, Bill Condon's remake now moves its total tally in Korea to 3.1 million, or $23.1 million; "Beauty and the Beast" is only 500,000 short of becoming the third highest-grossing film in Korea this year.

Advertisement

With 966,289 admissions (38.83%), Nah Hyeon's debut film, "The Prison" (starring Han Suk-kyu, Kim Rae-won, Kang Shin-il and Lee Kyung-young), came out in second place, moving its bottom line to $9.2 million (1.2 million admissions). Together, "The Prison" and "Beauty and the Beast" captured just under 80% of the weekend sales.

Kim Bong-han studied film at the University of New York City, and his first film, "The Hero" (Oh Jung-se), attracted just 23,387 admissions back in 2013. The action drama "Ordinary Person" is his second feature, and it's already surpassed his first; from 6190 screens around the country, "Ordinary Person" (Son Hyun-joo and Jang Hyuk) piqued the interest of 213,100 filmgoers (8.14%) to enter the fray in third.

Theodore Melfi's biographical drama "Hidden Figures", an adaptation of Margot Lee Shetterly's book about the African Americans mathematicians who worked with NASA during the Space Race, captured 108,252 admissions (4.26%) from 448 screens. This award-winning film was released in America on Christmas Day last year and has already grossed over $215.9 million worldwide (the film was produced for just $25 million). Last weekend's number two, Jordan Vogt-Roberts's "Kong: Skull Island", fell three places to fifth after capturing just 2.2% of the sales (58,155 admissions), bringing its total in Korea now to $12.3 million (1.6 million admissions).

The latest in the "X-Men" series of films, "Logan" (Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart) also fell three places to settle in sixth. "Logan" had its screen count slashed from 521 to 212, and with the 18,834 admissions (0.8%) it claimed over the weekend, its fourth out in Korea, the film's total admission count in Korea shifts to 2.1 million ($16.2 million). Worldwide, "Logan" has now grossed $547.3 million. The Japanese anime film "Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days" hit Korean screens recently, and its first weekend out attracted 16,050 filmgoers (0.56%) from just 98 screens.

Hong Sang-soo is one of modern Korean cinema's most respected and prolific talents. His latest film, "On the Beach at Night Alone" (Kim Min-hee), opened its commercial run with 14,610 admissions (0.57%) from 128 screens. Not far behind Hong's new film entered the Chinese animation "Three Little Pigs and the Magic Lamp" by director Wei Liu. The film was released in China back in mid-2015, but only recently arrived in South Korea. Wei's take on this classic tale attracted 12,788 admissions (0.48%) from 135 screens.

The final spot in the weekend's top ten went to Eran Creevy's action film "Collide" (aka "Autobahn") starring Nicholas Hoult and Felicity Jones. This co-production between Germany and the UK has struggled to impressive critics and filmgoers alike: despite a production budget of $21.5 million, the film has only grossed $4.8 million worldwide; in Korea, "Collide" managed 10,669 admissions (0.42%) from 153 screens during its first weekend out.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2017.03.24 - 2017.03.26 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Beauty and the Beast"   1 028 686 3 103 376
2 "The Prison" (프리즌) 2017/03/23 967 132 1 243 838
3 "Ordinary Person" (보통 사람) 2017/03/23 213 233 255 213
4 "Hidden Figures"   108 201 139 111
5 "Kong: Skull Island"   58 152 1 673 697
6 "Logan"   19 801 2 155 427
7 "Assassination Classroom: 365 Days" (劇場版 暗殺教室 365日の時間)   16 036 18 560
8 "On the Beach at Night Alone" (밤의 해변에서 혼자) 2017/03/23 14 649 20 070
9 "Three Little Pigs and the Magic Lamp" (三隻小豬與神燈)   12 791 13 490
10 "Collide" (Autobahn)   10 669 18 054
Korean movies only  
  "One Line" (원라인) 2017/03/29 4 477 9 325
  "Part-Time Spy" (비정규직 특수요원) 2017/03/16 2 548 146 714
  "Snowy Road - Theatrical Version" (눈길) 2017/03/01 578 127 641
  "Fabricated City" (조작된 도시) 2017/02/09 510 2 513 802
  "Le Tour: My Last 49 Days" (뚜르: 내 생애 최고의 49일) 2017/02/01 328 27 857
  "Bluebeard" (해빙) 2017/03/01 313 1 203 329
  "A Woman in the Wall" (벽 속의 여자, 1969) - Re-release   287 4 275
  "Ban Geum-ryun" (반금련, 1981) - Re-release   202 1 395
  "Gag Powerful Man" (만담강호) 2017/03/22 186 1 039
  SIDOF2017 Omnibus - Between 9 and 0 (9와 0 사이), You are my sunshine, thirty (서른), ESCAPE (탈)   184 184

- Chris Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com)

❎ Try Ad-free