[HanCinema's Film Review] Korean Weekend Box Office 2012.08.10 ~ 2012.08.12

HanCinema's Korean Box Office Review 

(2012.08.10~ 2012.08.12)

Choi Dong-hoon's "The Thieves" has been smashing the record books as the Korean public are still scrambling to catch this star-studded heist flick. "The Thieves" is already the highest grossing film released in Korea this year, with a phenomenal admissions count of almost 10 million! That's more that 2 million past its closest rival "The Avengers". All the while undermining "The Dark Knights" climb to 6 million admissions as well as nullifying the initial impact of Kim Joo-ho's "The Heist" which entered the race this past week.

"The Heist" earned just under a million admissions in its first weekend tilt, but it just wasn't enough to dethrone this years number one film. Flagged as the "Chosun version of 'Ocean's Eleven'", "The Heist" took three years to produce and carriers the support of a popular cast in the form of Cha Tae-hyeon, Oh Ji-ho, Seong Dong-il. Lee Moon-sik, Ko Chang-seok, Kim Jeong-tae, Seo Sin-ae, Cheon Bong-geun and more. It will be interesting to see if "The Thieves" surrenders some of its glory so that Kim Joo-ho's latest can step into the limelight. In third is another Korean film "I am King", up two places from five. Still, the film might be moving up in the world but it held that position with only 271,001 admissions, that's only 8.30% of the ticket sales. Into a string of foreign entries now, the first of which is the big budget comic adaptation "The Dark Knight Rises" with 240,354. This the final film in the "Dark Knight" trilogy has been the focus of much public interest and its star power in Korea has only slightly been softened as the local hits are timing their entry into the charts to perfection. Still this Hollywood beast has more than 6 million admissions to its name and is still going.

The Belgium animation "Sammy's Adventures 2" is at number five with 218,639 (7.10%), followed by "Ice Age: Continental Drift" which has a total admissions count of 1,453,213. At number seven is a German animation called "Animals United" which managed to claim 86,564 admissions in its first weekend in Korea.

"Step Up Revolution" is at 7 with 21,029, providing with a small break in the charts before yet another animation claims a position in the top ten. The Japanese film "Detective Conan The Eleventh Striker" came into the charts mid-July and is still around grabbing money, but it seems to have exhausted its pull; topping out at 499,976 total admissions during its time on circuit. Finally, at number ten is the omnibus film "Horror Stories" which peaked at number four when it came out, but since then it has made a steady decline towards the wrong end of the chart.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2012.08.10 - 2012.08.12 (www.kobis.or.kr)