Korean Box Office Update (09/16-09/18, 2011)

Weekend of September 16-18, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	292,931	6,589,663
2	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	258,466	1,917,256
3	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	172,668	640,685
4	Pained	9/7/11	105,016	555,879
5	The Crucible	22/9/2011	80,146	89,201
6	Rise of the Planet of the Apes (us)	17/8/2011	70,467	2,626,488
7	Champ	9/7/11	69,780	421,633
8	Shark Night 3D (us)	15/9/2011	49,646	61,148
9	Final Destination 5 (us)	9/8/11	43,462	206,718
10	Hindsight	31/8/2011	42,814	681,757
-	Blind	8/10/11	29,271	2,304,931
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	7/27/11	23,733	2,141,264
-	The Day He Arrives	8/9/11	4,501	22,966

Following last week's Chuseok festivities, box office receipts have shrunk down considerably with no major new film on wide release. The good news is that just like the last few weeks local fare has dominated on the charts.

Having relinquished its crown to last week's winner Marrying the Mafia IV, Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon is back on top again with 292,931 which represents a sub-30% drop from last weekend. With nearly 6.6 million admissions as of Sunday, Arrow is well positioned to overtake Sunny in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile the latest Marrying the Mafia installment had a predictably steep decline of 55%, taking 258,466 in its sophomore frame. If it manages to level out somewhat it wil easily have enough steam to drive its total above that of the franchise's last entry.

Kwon Sang-woo's lastest Pained saw a standard decline and raked in another 105,016 admissions but after it mediocre opening this may not be enough to bring it over a million.

The Crucible was the only new Korean film to play nationwide but it did so in only 221 theaters for previews and is scheduled for its full release on September 22. Nevertheless it managed to pull in 80,146 which is a good omen for its chances, it remains to be seen how the word-of-mouth will affect its chances.

Cha Tae-hyun's latest comedy Champ took a dive this week and nearly saw its take slashed in half with only 69,780 added to its coffers. It will likely fall out of the top 10 entirely next week.

Hindsight also slowed by nearly 50% with another 42,814 tickets sold. Its chances at one million admissions are all but nil at this point.

Outside of the top 10 Blind and Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild both fell by another 30% and their respective totals now stand at 2,304,931 and 2,141,264. Hong Sang-soo's latest The Day He Arrives added another 4,501 admissions to bring its two-week total to 22,966, a good start for this acclaimed limited release.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

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