Korean Box Office Update (06/08, 06/10, 2012)

The Emperor's Concubine Beats Aliens and Animals

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	The Emperor's Concubine	6/6/12	23.60%	511,462	976,696	613
2	Madagascar 3 (us)	6/6/12	16.60%	354,516	635,636	561
3	All About My Wife	5/17/12	13.70%	298,564	3,424,239	393
4	Prometheus (us)	6/6/12	14.80%	272,774	549,092	515
5	Men in Black 3 (us)	5/24/12	11.40%	254,952	3,016,581	396
6	Runway Cop	5/30/12	8.50%	194,779	860,995	351
7	Don't Click	5/30/12	7.20%	175,819	744,844	343
8	Snow White and the Huntsmen (us)	5/30/12	2.50%	57,104	605,619	235
9	The Avengers (us)	4/26/12	0.70%	16,148	7,040,163	71
10	The Taste of Money	5/17/12	0.30%	5,493	1,156,868	91

Another big and crowded weekend at the box office as three new features duked it out with two big holdovers for the top spot.  Business was strong with 2.17 million admissions versus 1.6 for last year while the local market share held strong with 54% which was another increase on 2011's 40%.  The new features got off to a strong start on Wednesday which was a holiday and left my predictions in the dust.

Leading the frame was The Emperor's Concubine with a healthy 511,462.  It's a strong number and a bit better than I expected though, as is so frequently the case with local films, the only thing that really matters is next weekend's number.  The little I've heard on this pic has been middling but a trajectory similar to The Servant  (2010) could put it well over 2 million, but that was a very well-received film.

Opening at number 2 was the third installment in the popular animated Madagascar franchise with 354,516.  The holiday gave it a big boost and with summer coming up it has a chance to play well but I doubt it'll stay this high next week.

All About My Wife dropped about 30% as it recorded another 298,564 admissions to bring its total to almost 3.5 million.  4 million is now just a matter of time, it'll be the year's 4th local film to cross that milestone.  To put that into perspective only 5 did so last year and only 2 the year before that, considering we're not even half way through 2012, this bodes very well for end of year totals.

Prometheus, surprisingly, was almost dead on arrival as it earned 272,774 despite what was seen as a very effective marketing campaign.  I can't offer many reasons for this, perhaps after the glut of May Hollywood blockbusters, audiences wanted to take it some local fare.

Men in Black 3 fell hard at the hands of the new releases and made 254,952 though it crossed the 3 million admissions threshold in the process.  A strong result and it should eek out 3.5 before all is said and done.

Runway Cop also took a hit as it lost 45% of its audience for 194,779.  It'll go over the 1 million mark before next weekend but will struggle to go much further than 1.5 but I can't say I'm surprised as I still can't see where the appeal lies in this picture.

Don't Click fell 40% as it sold another 175,819 tickets which isn't bad for a horror, though it didn't open particularly strong.  But for a film that was supposed to come out last year anything over a million will be seen as a success, a mark it should cross next weekend.

The year's second take on Snow White crumbled 80% to 57,104 which all but guarantees that it will miss the 1 million mark and likely by a large margin.  The film opened well in the US last week but I can see why Korean audiences might not have opted for two Snow White films in same season.

The Avengers took another 16,148 as it makes its way out of theaters and has now cleared the 7 million barrier, a great result.

The Taste of Money is also leaving theaters with another 5,493 which was just good enough for last place but it will leave the charts with a less than stellar total.

Not sure what will happen next weekend as the only major releases to speak of are the Guy Pearce starring Lockout (which has been advertised relatively heavily in Seoul) and The Ring 3D.  I think they will have middling openings (200-250,000) while this week's number 1 and 2 vie for the top spot.

Source: kobis.or.kr

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 Sunday evening or 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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