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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.09.11 ~ 2015.09.13

"Ant-man" enjoys a second weekend at the top...

For the second week in a row Marvel's "Ant-Man" topped the South Korea box office and has now moved its total tally to 2.3 million admissions ($16 million). Release in Korea on the third, "Ant-Man" continues the superhero trend by bringing international audiences another incredible character from the Marvel's inexhaustible universe of heroes. Last weekend the film opened in first by capturing over 45% of the box office pie, and week two for Marvel's mighty mini man saw it retain the top spot by claiming 40.8% of sales (695 thousand admissions). Although a foreign flick topped the weekend's list of top performers, the home team occupied positions two through sixth with a variety of compelling local features, some of which are still writing their names into the record books.

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Ryoo Seung-wan's crime drama "Veteran" has been one of the stars this year, and since its release early August the film has managed to garner enough support to join a small list of South Korea films that have past the ten million admissions mark. "Veteran" added another 379 thousand to bring its new bottom line to 12.4 million; that's $83 million. Last weekend "Veteran" was dislodged at the country's top film, and despite not being able to reclaim any of that lost ground (the film did come out over a month ago) Ryoo's latest is still going strong and threatens to surpass the 12.6 million "The Assassination" is currently sitting on. Third place went to a new local film by director Kwon Hyeong-jin entitled, "Deep Trap" starring Ma Dong-seok. This is Kwon's fourth feature after "My Piano" (2006), "Truck" (2008), and "Wedding Dress" (2009), and its first weekend out yielded 159 thousand admissions across 445 screens.

Last weekend Baek Jong-yeol's "Beauty Inside" found itself in fourth place with just over 200 thousand admissions going its way; but while it was able to retain that position, it did so with just 119 thousand admissions (6.9%) and is on the verge of making it 2 million admissions since its release late August. Not far behind Baek's romantic melodrama came one of most successful local productions of the year, Choi Dong-hoon's "The Assassination" with 81 thousand stubs. Like "Veteran", "The Assassination" is one of only eleven South Korean films that have been able to boast having sold over 10 million admissions, and with this week's stubs counted, the film now moves its total to 12.6 million ($82 million).

Hong Won-chan's mystery thriller "The Office" opened in third last weekend but slipped to sixth with just 81 thousand admissions going its way (4.2%). The film was released last weekend to around 425 theaters around the country, but those screenings dropped to 334 here as "The Office" slowly advanced to 423 thousand admissions ($2.8 million). The American science fiction thriller "Self/less" by Tarsem Singh came out in the States in July, but arrived in Korea only last Thursday. The film was allocated 340 screens from which to pool from, and so managed to attract 74.3 thousand admissions (4.2%) for seventh place. The biographical film about the Californian hip-hop group N.W.A by F. Gary Gray also found its way to Korea recently and attracted 21 thousand during its first week of release (1.2%). "Straight out of Compton" was produced from around $28 million and has so far banked more than $180.7 million worldwide. Kang Hyo-jin's "Wonderful Nightmare" took ninth with its 14 thousand (down one place), and the top performer's list was rounded out by the Japanese animation "Love Live! The School Idol Movie" on 13 thousand.

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.09.11 - 2015.09.13 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Ant-Man"   695 236 2 372 027
2 "Veteran" (베테랑) 2015/08/05 379 782 12 494 722
3 "Deep Trap" (함정) 2015/09/10 159 308 200 751
4 "Beauty Inside" (뷰티 인사이드) 2015/08/20 119 670 1 990 816
5 "The Assassination" (암살) 2015/07/22 81 092 12 640 311
6 "The Office" (오피스) 2015/09/03 75 942 423 650
7 "Self/less"   74 389 90 045
8 "Straight Outta Compton"   21 274 26 253
9 "Wonderful Nightmare" (미쓰 와이프) 2015/08/13 14 155 973 756
10 "Love Live! The School Idol Movie" (ラブライブ!)   13 541 50 390
Korean movies only  
  "Super Racer Angie" (슈퍼레이서 엔지) 2015/09/10 7 524 7 666
  "My Sister, The Pig Lady" (돼지 같은 여자) 2015/09/10 3 251 5 032
  "Love Never Fails" (사랑이 이긴다) 2015/09/10 3 227 9 761
  "Accidental Detective" (탐정 : 더 비기닝) 2015/09/24 2 553 4 416
  "The Martyrdom" (순교) 2015/08/13 1 514 6 882
  "The Throne" (사도) 2015/09/16 738 11 491
  "Untouchable Lawmen" (치외법권) 2015/08/27 621 346 286
  "The Piano" (기적의 피아노) 2015/09/03 523 7 007
  "Shadow Island" (영도) 2015/09/10 516 1 534
  "Trap" (덫, 치명적인 유혹) 2015/09/17 268 268

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)

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