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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.05.15 - 2015.05.17

"Chronicles of Evil" and "Mad Max" dislodges "The Avengers"...

While Cannes is playing host to the top stars and filmmakers from around the world, the South Korean public came out in droves over the weekend to catch two new features that recently made their way onto the chart. Baek Woon-hak's thriller "Chronicles of Evil" and George Miller's remake of "Mad Max" were the must-see films, and between them the capture over 70% of the box office pie; in the process removing "The Avengers" from its previous privileged position as South Korea's number one.

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"Chronicles of Evil" (staring Son Hyun-joo, Ma Dong-seok and Choi Daniel) entered they fray last Thursday and claimed 732K admissions (34%) during its first weekend out. Baek's cop thriller (along with "Mad Max: Fury Road") managed to dislodge last week's number one, "The Avengers: Age of Ultron", and is already just shy of the million-admissions mark.

Critics have already dubbed George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" as one of the finest action films of the year. The film returns to the dystopian wastelands of the "Mad Max" franchise and stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, and Nicholas Hoult in a dusty action rush that has already grossed $109M worldwide. "Mad Max: Fury Road" entered in second place and claimed the interest of 708K (36%) Korean filmgoers across 799 screens available nationwide.

For the past few week's Marvel's "Avengers: Age of Ultron" has been dictating terms at the top of the Korean box office. The big American blockbuster was released on the 23 April and has since amassed $78M. It now joins an elite (although ever-growing) list of films released in South Korea that have earned over 10 million admissions. Marvel's superhero effort added another 385K (18%) over 669 screens to occupy third place, down two from its glory days a week ago. Worldwide, Walt Disney's "Avengers" has grossed an incredible $1.1B.

In fourth place, and down two, came Han Hun-hee's drama "Coin Locker Girl" starring Kim Hye-soo , Kim Go-eun, and Um Tae-goo. Week three for this local drama saw it claim 68K (3.3%), which moved its bottom line to $10.6M, or 1.4M admissions. "Con Locker Girl" also marked the watershed for this week's top performers as the U.S. supernatural horror "Unfriended" followed in fifth with just 32K going its way (1.3%); however, globally, Levan Gabriadze's thrilling flick has banked over $42M: an incredible sum considering the film cost an estimated $1M to produce.

The Korea-USA animated co-production "Dino Time" was unmoved in sixth (29K - 1.3%) and was followed by a new foreign entry in the form of Noah Baumbach's comedy drama "When We're Young" (which stars Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adma Driver, and Amanda Seyfried). "When We're Young" claimed 22.6K admissions (1.3%) over its allocated 210 screens, around 7K more Kim Aaron's "Love Clinic" which sunk to seventh with 22.6K (1%).

Lastly, the week's top performers ended with Kim Jin-young's "Enemies In-Law" and the Brazilian-British adventure thriller, "Trash" (based on Andy Mulligan's novel of the same name). "Enemies In-Law" (starring Jin Se-yeon, Hong Jong-hyung, Shin Jung-keun, and Jeon Soo-kyeong) fell four places to settle in ninth with 15K, while "Trash" scored 11K for tenth.

 

Last weekend's report: HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.05.08 ~ 2015.05.10

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.05.15 - 2015.05.17 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Chronicles of Evil" (악의 연대기) 2015/05/14 732 976 859 907
2 "Mad Max: Fury Road"   708 323 802 006
3 "The Avengers: Age of Ultron"   385 229 10 024 972
4 "Coin Locker Girl" (차이나타운) 2015/04/29 68 957 1 423 008
5 "Unfriended"   32 501 211 406
6 "Dino Time" (다이노 타임) 2015/04/30 29 810 273 157
7 "While We're Young"   22 614 29 630
8 "Love Clinic" (연애의 맛) 2015/05/07 18 018 204 223
9 "Enemies In-Law" (위험한 상견례 2) 2015/04/30 15 098 463 747
10 "Trash"   10 993 14 694
Korean movies only  
  "Salut D'Amour" (장수상회) 2015/04/09 3 827 1 155 228
  "My Fair Wedding" (마이 페어 웨딩) 2015/06/04 630 1 167
  "An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma" (잡식가족의 딜레마) 2015/05/07 544 3 570
  "The Admiral's Path" (명량: 장군의 길) 2015/05/07 253 7 568
  "Alive" (산다) 2015/05/21 248 1 381
  "The Shameless" (무뢰한) 2015/05/27 238 1 831
  "Glittering Hands" (반짝이는 박수 소리) 2015/04/23 175 3 350
  "Twenty" (스물) 2015/03/25 174 3 043 574
  "The Disobeying Teachers" (명령불복종 교사) 2015/05/14 157 738
  "He Who Loves the World" (그 사람 그 사랑 그 세상) 2015/03/26 112 42 027

 

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)

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