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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.11.03 - 2017.11.05

"Ragnarok" still rules despite stiff competition from "The Bros"...

"Thor: Ragnarok" stood its ground against local writer/director Chang You-jeong's new comedy-drama, "The Bros". From 1,047 screens, down from 1,640, the seventeenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe added 833,949 admissions (38.31%), bringing its total tally in Korea to 3.7 million, or $28.8 million. Worldwide, from a production budget of $180 million, "Thor: Ragnarok" (starring a more comedic Chris Hemsworth) has grossed nearly half a billion dollars. Taika Waititi's "Thor" now needs another 256,000 admissions to overtake "The Fortress" (3.8 million) and enter this year's top ten.

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"The Bros" is Chang You-jeong's second feature film after the 2010 romantic comedy, "Finding Mr. Destiny" starring Lim Soo-jung and Gong Yoo, which managed a little over a million admissions around this same time of year. Chang's new comedy was very competitive: from 889 screens, just 158 less than "Thor", "The Bros" captured 26.74% of the weekend sales (605,688 admissions), or $4.5 million. The film stars Ma Dong-seok, Lee Dong-hwi and Lee Hanee.

The sleeper hit "The Outlaws" (also starring Ma Dong-seok, alongside Yoon Kye-sang) competed over Chuseok against Hwang Dong-hyuk's historical film "The Fortress" but has since stayed on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of the year with 6.3 million admissions ($46.8 million), 266,586 of which (12.32%) came from this past weekend. "The Outlaws" is now 219,000 admissions behind Ryoo Seung-wan's "The Battleship Island", the fourth highest-grossing film of the year.

Jeong Ji-woo's eighth film, "Heart Blackened", entered the fray in fourth with 238,808 admissions (10.63%). Jeong's new crime thriller stars Choi Min-sik, Park Shin-hye and Ryu Jun-yeol in a remake of the 2013 Chinese film "Silent Witness" by director Fei Xing. "Let Me Eat Your Pancreas", a Japanese romance drama, fell two places to fifth with 74,716 admissions (3.39%), followed by the eight film in the popular "Saw" horror franchise, "Jigsaw". Internationally, the Spierig Brothers' "Jigsaw" has already banked six times its production cost of $10 million; in Korea, from 175 screens, it's first weekend out yielded $475,449 from 58,409 admissions (2.85%).

"Monkey King : The Hero" is the debut film of Chinese director Tian Xiaopeng. The film was released in China back in July and arrived in Korea last Thursday. The film underperformed: from 212 screens it managed just 13,209 admissions (0.53%), or $88,401. Right on its heels came a re-release of the 2007 Irish musical "Once" by director John Carney with 13,140 (0.6%) for eighth.

The American disaster film"Geostorm" entered in second place the weekend after Chuseok, then fell to fourth last weekend, and now sits in ninth with 1.03 million admissions ($7.5 million), 12,122 (0.46%) of which were earned over the weekend. The final spot went to the third new local entry to make the top ten, Pang Eun-jin's melodrama "Method" starring Park Sung-woong and Yoon Seung-ah. Bang's fifth film, which is just 82-minutes long, came away from its first weekend out with 8,771 admissions (0.39%).

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2017.11.03 - 2017.11.05 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "THOR: RAGNAROK"   833 913 3 571 059
2 "The Bros" (부라더) 2017/11/02 605 675 731 559
3 "The Outlaws" (범죄도시) 2017/10/03 266 570 6 369 008
4 "Heart Blackened" (침묵) 2017/11/02 238 794 302 636
5 "Let Me Eat Your Pancreas" (君の膵臓をたべたい)   74 651 345 487
6 "Jigsaw"   58 409 76 662
7 "Monkey King : The Hero" (西游记之大圣归来)   13 209 13 983
8 "Once"   13 128 255 410
9 "Geostorm"   12 108 1 025 313
10 "Method" (메소드) 2017/11/02 8 760 13 852
Korean movies only  
  "Beautiful Tomorrow" (뷰티풀 투모로우) 2017/10/26 7 842 43 716
  "My Last Love" (내게 남은 사랑을) 2017/11/02 5 180 13 575
  "The Classic" (클래식) 2003/01/30 1 968 2 769
  "The Fortress" (남한산성) 2017/10/03 1 939 3 840 663
  "Man of Will" (대장 김창수) 2017/10/19 1 781 377 275
  "Old Marine Boy" (올드마린보이 ) 2017/11/02 1 597 4 314
  "Bungee Jumping of their Own" (번지점프를 하다) 2001/02/03 1 280 1 683
  "Beauty Inside" (뷰티 인사이드) 2015/08/20 1 097 2 055 601
  "Jung Il Woo, My Friend" (내 친구 정일우) 2017/10/26 1 005 7 000
  "I Can Speak" (아이 캔 스피크) 2017/09/21 908 3 267 097

- Christopher Wheeler

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