KBO: The Thieves Continues to Smash Records (08/03-08/05, 2012)

The Thieves Continues to Smash Records

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	The Thieves	7/25/12	54.50%	2,002,862	6,877,785	1,092
2	The Dark Knight Rises (us)	7/19/12	17.10%	615,196	5,522,967	630
3	Sammy's Asventures 2 (bl)	8/1/12	10.40%	358,903	549,644	486
4	Ice Age 4 (us)	7/25/12	8.50%	301,481	1,194,354	425
5	The Grand Heist	8/8/12	1.60%	58,736	84,095	160
6	Detective Conan (jp)	7/19/12	1.30%	54,623	459,069	146
7	Rock of Ages (us)	8/2/12	1.30%	48,525	67,444	243
8	Horror Stories	7/25/12	1.30%	48,210	267,632	150
9	Piranha 3DD (us)	8/1/12	1.10%	34,938	58,916	266
10	Doraemon (jp)	7/25/12	0.70%	27,769	141,060	109

Following enormous weekday figures, The Thieves has continued its unprecedented run with a marginal increase over its debut, lifting the total box office to a new height of 3.68 million admissions, that's three times in as many weeks that that record has been broken, if anyone's counting! Also a big jump over last year's 2.9 million, when Sector 7 opened. Local market share stayed strong at 58%, but this was below last year's 73%.

The Thieves clocked in at 2,002,862 to stay level with its debut and it has now amassed 6,877,785 admissions. By far the quickest films to reach milestones for 4, 5 and 6 million, not to mention 7 which it will handily cross tomorrow. However, based on Sunday's drop, it has reached its saturation point and will start to slow down. While 10 million is now a forgone conclusions, the question is whether it can vie for the number 1 all time spot, currently held by Avatar. It's looking pretty solid now, but another week will give us a better indication.

The Dark Knight Rises held strong with a 30% for 615,196 which brought its total to over 5.5 million. At this rate it could beat The Avengers to become the biggest non-Korean film of the year. At number 3, Belgian animation Sammy's Adventures 2 opened strong with 358,903. In the next slot, Ice Age 4 held exceptionally well for 301,481. The Grand Heist rounded out the top 5 with previews amounting to 58,736.

While The Grand Heist opens next weekend, it still seems like nothing will come even remotely close to The Thieves which will likely sell well over a million tickets again. Busy times at the Korean box office!

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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