| "Avatar" becomes sixth most-watched film in Korea (Source) |
2010/01/14 |
Hollywood film "Avatar" has set another record in Korea this week, becoming the sixth most-watched film in the country's history, according to the film's distributor 20th Century Fox Korea on Friday.
As of January 14, the James Cameron pic -- which on Monday was named the most-watched foreign film in Korea -- had attracted over 8.66 million viewers since its release on December 17 to set the new box-office record.
The figures for the sci-fi action flick had surpassed notable Korean blockbusters such as "Take Off" (8.44 million viewers), "D-War" (8.42 mil.), to land at No. 6 on the list of most-watched films of all-time.
The top five spots were all claimed by Korean movies -- "The Host", "The King and the Clown", "Taegukgi", "Haeundae" and "Silmido".
"Avatar" is expected to breach the nine-million viewer mark over the weekend as it is still topping ticket reservations into its fifth week of release.
The film stars Australian actor Sam Worthington as a paraplegic war veter... |More
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| 'Fantasy of Korea Key to Drawing Global Audience' (Source) |
2010/01/11 |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Korea doesn't seem to spark the imagination of North Americans, and this partly explains why Korean films are not popular there, observed an award-winning filmmaker.
Choi Dong-hoon, 39, director of the latest box-office hit "JEON WOO CHI : The Taoist Wizard", said that the lack of information about Korea makes it difficult for Korean filmmakers to be successful at the Western box office.
"North Americans know that Korea is part of Asia. Compared with Japan and China, however, Korea has little to appeal to the people there", Choi said in an interview with The Korea Times last Thursday at his office in southern Seoul.
By Monday, more than four million moviegoers had flocked to see his latest movie that deals with superhero Jeon Woo Chi. The critically acclaimed film, based on a Korean folktale, marked the third consecutive box-office hit produced by Choi.
Choi made his filmmaking debut in 2004 with "The Big Swindle", a thriller that drew ... |More
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| D-War Director Back With 3 Projects (Source) |
2009/10/09 |
"D-War" director SHIM Hyung-Rae's is busy again working on some largely diverse projects. Despite the controversy surrounding his monstrously successful but critically lampooned monster move "D-War", he is back working on no less than three projects. . Like "D-War", new film "Condor" is a CG heavy flick with a demo trailer already released. Secondly comes "The Last Godfather", a comic take on the famous 1970's Francis Ford Coppola trilogy. The film will reprise the role of Younggu, a character created by SHIM in the 1980s that was a hit with Korean children both on TV and film.
Notably SHIM is also directing animation "Memory of Bread" that goes to great lengths to create South Korea in the 1960s, still struggling to recreate and industrialize itself after the war. The movie focuses on two children who both lose their parents and then have to survive on their own in the difficult post-war environment. "Memory of Bread" will be released 2011.
David Oxenbridge (KOFIC)... |More
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| Box Office Score Peaks After 2-Year Low (Source) |
2009/09/08 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
The South Korean box office saw an all-time high in August, drawing over 20 million moviegoers for the first time in two years, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) announced Monday.
Some 21.4 million tickets were sold, which purely in terms of numbers would account for about 43.2 percent of South Korea's 49.5-million population.
This is the third time that over 20 million tickets were sold in a single month. In January 2006 "My Boss, My Teacher" among others attracted 20.39 million audience members and, in August 2007, "D-War" and "May 18" were the main catalysts in bringing in 21.56 million moviegoers. Despite ranking second two years ago in terms of number of viewers, August pulled in the highest gross profit ― 153.9 billion won compared to 136.7 billion won in 2007.
Korean summer blockbusters "Haeundae" and "Take Off" attracted a total of 12.93 million moviegoers (60.4 percent of the box office sales). The two alternated between first an... |More
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| Disaster Movie 'Haeundae' Heads for 10-Million Mark (Source) |
2009/08/17 |
The Korean disaster film "Haeundae" has attracted more than 9 million spectators in the 26 days since its release and is about to surpass the 10 million mark. Dstributor CJ Entertainment on Monday said the film drew a total of 9.07 million viewers by Sunday. And as of Saturday, with an accumulated number of 8.8 million spectators, it already surpassed "D-War" to take the fifth place in the all-time box office hit parade for Korean films.
"Haeundae" is also the second fastest of four Korean films that attracted over 10 million spectators, topped only by "The Host", which drew 9 million viewers in just 18 days. "Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War" took 31 days, "The King and the Clown" 38 and "Silmido" 45.
"Take Off", a story about ski jumpers, is enjoying growing popularity in its third week, topping the box-office chart in terms of the number of spectators per day for three days since Friday over "Haeundae".
According to statistics compiled by the Korean Film Council as of Sun... |More
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