KBO: Hollywood Titles End Late Summer Local Streak (09/07-09/09, 2012)

Hollywood Titles End Late Summer Local Streak

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	The Bourne Legacy (us)	9/6/12	29.30%	522,713	619,128	588
2	Traffickers	8/29/12	17.60%	302,258	1,315,355	385
3	The Expendables 2 (us)	9/6/12	13.30%	240,675	278,494	394
4	Neighbors	8/22/12	12.00%	206,259	2,298,476	346
5	The Grand Heist	8/8/12	7.70%	144,076	4,833,965	312
6	The Thieves	7/25/12	7.20%	129,060	12,836,869	323
7	Pieta	8/6/12	3.30%	58,061	68,090	171
8	Step Up 4 (us)	8/15/12	2.50%	45,369	931,745	149
9	Abrahama Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (us)	8/30/12	1.90%	31,749	333,276	230
10	Sammy's Adventures 2 (ge)	8/1/12	0.80%	14,750	1,454,392	107

After 6 weeks of Korean dominance, the local industry has finally ceded the box office throne to a foreign contender. Admissions were also down to 1.78 million, which was below last year's 1.97, granted there were no new Korean releases this week. What's more Korea and Hollywood were neck and neck as the domestic market share clocked in at 48%, which was well below last year's 68% when Marrying the Mafia IV and War of the Arrows lorded over the chart.

The new film in the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy, which has a new leading man in Jeremy Renner, had a solid if unremarkable opening this weekend as it attracted 522,713 filmgoers. It's biggest achievement is being the first non-Korean film to top the charts since mid-summer.

The Traffickers had a relatively big drop (+40%), just like Neighbors before it, as it added another 302,258 tickets to its total, which now stands well over a million. A second milestone is possible but not altogether likely at this point.

The Expendables 2, with its gigantic cast of action cinema heavyweights, had an unremarkable start at number 3 with 240,675. Growth is not likely beyond this point.

In its third weekend, Neighbors took a big 50% hit to land at number 4 with 206,259 but with almost 2.5 million tickets sold to date this is by no means a disaster. A solid performance for a midlevel late summer entry.

The Grand Heist was also down 50% as it scored another 144,076 admissions. It is very close to the 5 million mark now and should get over it a little more than a week from now.

The Thieves, which also saw its take halved, added 129,060 to its enormous haul and is now very close to The Host's Korean box office record. It should clinch the titles in the next two weeks but Avatar's overall record looks safe.

Kim Ki-duk's latest film Pieta had an incredible debut with 58,061 which would make it easily one of his most successful films. Add to that the fact that it has just won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and this is an arthouse feature that may break into the mainstream consciousness.

Next week should be an easy victory for the much-hyped Lee Byung-hun period pic Masquerade which is getting some strong word of mouth and may be yet another enormous 2012 Korean hit.


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 Korean Reviews. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

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