Korean Box Office Update (07/13-07/15, 2012)

Deranged Infects the Charts

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Deranged	7/5/12	43.60%	1,148,211	3,226,499	734
2	The Amazing Spiderman (us)	6/28/12	28.80%	679,675	4,396,250	652
3	Two Moons	7/12/12	7.60%	204,806	238,454	347
4	Dangerously Excited	7/12/12	4.90%	127,816	157,225	278
5	A Letter to Momo (jp)	7/5/12	3.80%	108,895	247,814	248
6	Limitless (us)	7/12/12	2.30%	60,765	76,399	159
7	Midnight in Paris (us)	7/5/12	2.50%	60,051	196,927	144
8	Madagascar 3 (us)	6/6/12	2.00%	54,143	1,606,573	163
9	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (uk)	7/12/12	0.90%	22,967	31,650	149
10	Street Dance 2 (us)	7/12/12	0.80%	20,875	26,179	133

Another weekend and another massive take at the box office, this seems to be the status quo now in Korea. After the news was revealed earlier this week that receipts for the first 6 months of the year smashed all previous records, the last three days increased yet again over last year's frame, from 2.56 to 2.63 million, and what's more they did it with a local holdover when last year's top draw was the opening weekend of the final installment of the enormous Harry Potter franchise. The local market share was a powerful 56% versus last year's paltry 18%.

Deranged surprised a lot of people with its 1+ million opening last week, including me, but I am almost dumbfounded to see that it has increased on such an enormous debut with a gigantic 1,148,211 admissions. A rare feat, in fact I'm not even sure if it's ever happened before, The Host came close in 2006 and that is still the highest grossing Korean film of all time. However there were no new major openings and its real test will come next weekend in the shape of The Dark Knight Rises.

The Amazing Spiderman was a little less amazing during its third weekend as it dropped 40% for 679,675 though it was able to cross the 4 million benchmark in the process and is now confidently threatening its next milestone.

Two Moons had a mediocre start with 204,806 but frankly given the poor reception reception of K-horrors recently and this particular offering's woeful marketing this almost seems like a minor victory. The film will likely fall fast but it should bank half a million before all is said and done.

Clearly people weren't too excited to check out Dangerously Excited as it debuted with a lousy 127,816. It's a shame since it's a film that is very much worth checking out but it's also not a surprise. Given the relatively light slate for local releases around this time I think this Busan-premiered low/midlevel pic was bumped up to a wide release but it didn't get a huge promotional push.

A Letter to Momo impressed as it remained flat, adding 108,895 to its total which now stands a shade from a quarter million. Bradley Cooper's high-concept flick Limitless was next as it tanked with its 60,765 opening but then again the film opened over a year ago in most international markets. Next was Woody Allen's delightful Midnight in Paris which was also flat with 60,051 but it didn't begin too well so this is just an okay result.

Madagascar 3 fell another 36% for 54,143. It has had a good run but may be out of the chart next week. UK comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel didn't find an audience as it came away with a paltry 22,967 but then again this isn't the kind of film that was likely to find one here in the first place. Closing out the chart this week was another new film, Street Dance 2, which was also a no-go as it debuted to 20,875.

Next week, all eyes will be on The Dark Knight Rises as it will look to rearrange Deranged down the chart. It should have no problem doing this but the latter film will still take a huge chunk of the market share, something no one would have expected a few weeks ago.

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 night (Korean Standard Time) 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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