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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.05.01 ~ 2015.05.03

Marvel's might continues while newcomers stake their claim…

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There was some serious jostling for position going on at the box office this past weekend. Last weekend Marvel's latest "Avengers" film entered the fray and (righteously) dominated proceedings by capturing a mammoth 90% of the box office pie. And while this left little else for the rest of the pack to pounce on, a week later we find a string of new entries trying to make a move on Marvel's monster.

"The Avengers: Age of Ultron" has been attacking records vigorously worldwide since its release late last month, and it's arrival in Korea was no less spectacular. Week two for the foreign favourite was equally profitable. The film claimed an additional 2.3M admissions (73%) across 1,634 screens to continue its reign as the country's favourite flick. With that haul "The Avengers" now moves onto 7 million admissions, or $55.5M.

Second place to sixth were all claimed by newcomers. Han Jun-hee's drama "Coin Locker girls" (which was screen as part of Cannes 2015 Critics' Week) starring Kim Hye-soo, Kim Go-eun and Um Tae-goo, managed 438K (14%) to sit in second place, while Kim Jin-young's comedy "Enemies In-Law" (with Jin Se-yeon, Hong Jong-hyun, Sin Jeong-heun and Jeon Soo-kyeong) took third place with 160K (5%).

With all the age-restricted blockbusters breaking through it was nice to see a number of films targeting the younger crowds feature. The first of which was the animated adventure film "Dino Time" by Korean directors Choi Yoon-seok-I and John Kafka. The film is a collaborative effort between American studios and the South Korea, and during its first weekend out managed it to claim 2% of the box office pie (74K). Close behind fell another international effort, this time from Germany, Belgium and Ireland. "Ooops! Noah is Gone" (aka "Two by Two") and tells the tale of Dave, a "Nestrian" that, along with his sone Finny, missed their ticket on the ark. "Ooops! Noah is Gone" scored 67K admissions over 354 screens for fifth.

The American animation "Ribbit" (with voices by Sean Aston, Tim Curry and Russell Peters) came out in the States last June, but has finally arrived on Korean soil to the delight of nearly 33K filmgoers (0.8%), and was tailed by Kang Je-gyu's family drama "Salut D'Amour" starring Park Geun-hyung, Youn Yuh-jung, Cho Jin-woong, and Han Ji-man"). "Salut D'Amour" has been in charts since early April, but with the recent rush of new and popular releases this local delight has drifted towards the wrong end of the scale. "Salut D'Amour" added 30K (0.8%) to advance its total tally now to just over a million ($7.5M).

Rounding out the first week of May now and in eighth place fell yet another animations, this time from Japan in the form of the popular "Crayon Shin-chan" (subtitled: "Serious Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back") (30K admissions). "Furious 7" was flying high in Korea just last week, but after a few weeks of uncontested glory, this high-octane rush plummeted to ninth in no time at all in the wake of the "Avengers" and new hopefuls. "Furious 7" occupied second last week, but the 26K it claim here was no where near competitively enough to stay in the upper echelons of the chart. Lastly, Richard Glastzer's adaptation of Lisa Genova's 2007 novel, "Still Alice" starring Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin, closed this weekend's list of top performers with 24K admissions.

Last weekend's report: [HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.04.24 ~ 2015.04.26


Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.05.01 - 2015.05.03 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Avengers: Age of Ultron"   2 347 187 7 011 368
2 "Coin Locker Girl" (차이나타운) 2015/04/29 438 693 624 240
3 "Enemies In-Law" (위험한 상견례 2) 2015/04/30 160 391 211 144
4 "Dino Time" (다이노 타임) 2015/04/30 74 357 77 984
5 "Ooops! Noah is Gone"   67 102 75 566
6 "Ribbit"   32 858 39 522
7 "Salut D'Amour" (장수상회) 2015/04/09 30 211 1 080 904
8 "Crayon Shin-chan: Serious Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back" (映画クレヨンしんちゃん ガチンコ!逆襲のロボとーちゃん)   29 917 86 114
9 "Furious 7"   26 099 3 206 082
10 "Still Alice"   24 566 37 594
Korean movies only  
  "Twenty" (스물) 2015/03/25 1 616 3 041 057
  "Revivre" (화장) 2015/04/09 1 276 140 926
  "Clown of a Salesman" (약장수) 2015/04/23 481 40 513
  "Glittering Hands" (반짝이는 박수 소리) 2015/04/23 366 2 256
  "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" (명량) 2014/07/30 364 17 614 590
  "Forget-Me-Not" (물망초)   206 4 007
  "Foulball" (파울볼) 2015/04/02 201 30 960
  "Hill of Freedom" (자유의 언덕) 2014/09/04 155 39 091
  "Strangers on the Field" (그라운드의 이방인) 2015/03/19 112 3 843
  "I Love Only You" (당신만을 사랑해, 1978) - Re-release   86 379

 

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)

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