KBO: Masquerade Goes for 5-in-a-Row and on Track for 10 Million (10/12-10/14, 2012)

Masquerade Goes for 5-in-a-Row and on Track for 10 Million

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Masquerade	9/13/12	36.80%	683,845	9,344,967	675
2	A Company Man	10/11/12	27.00%	468,300	576,744	549
3	Looper (us)	10/11/12	11.60%	201,278	250,121	386
4	Ghost Sweepers	10/3/12	5.70%	112,637	844,889	316
5	Dangerous Liaisons	10/11/12	6.00%	106,821	139,370	334
6	Brave (us)	9/27/12	4.70%	90,114	1,072,603	325
7	Taken 2 (us)	9/27/12	3.40%	58,376	2,267,568	281
8	Frankenweenie (us)	10/11/12	1.60%	26,638	30,327	226
9	Spy	9/20/12	0.70%	13,311	1,302,020	105
10	Ted (us)	10/3/12	0.70%	11,685	256,849	80

Despite an underwhelming start for Showbox's A Company Man it was another big weekend for local releases. With a 1.86 million total, admissions were down about 300,000 from last year but that was the Chuseok period. However, this year's local market share was significantly higher at 76% versus 47%.

Going for 5-in-a-row, Masquerade once again held onto the top spot with an impressive 683,845 and will easily cross the 10 million mark within a week and could yet go further still.

A Company Man had a so-so start with 468,300. As big a star as So Ji-seob is, perhaps his appeal is a better fit for television as last year's Always also disappointed during its run. Its box office chances were also likely eroded by the unexpected longevity of Masquerade's success. The film has been well-received and may bounce back but with another big Korean thriller hitting screens next week it will face an uphill battle.

The critically-acclaimed Hollywood sci-fi thriller Looper opened at no.3 with a lukewarm 201,278 and though one could hope for a bounce on the back of some good word of mouth, films of this nature (namely Sci-fi) generally fare poorly at the Korean box office.

Ghost Sweepers took a hefty dive after its bad start as it posted a meager 112,637. The poorly marketed shaman comedy is now unlikely to cross the 1 million milestone.

Opening at number 5, the glitzy Chinese-Korean co-production Dangerous Liaisons was a big disappointment with only 106,821. Despite some huge stars and a large festival presence, Hur Jin-ho's film fell way short of the mark.

Next week sees CJ's romantic thriller Perfect Number go head-to-head with Masquerade on its 6th weekend and honestly, at this stage, all bets are off.

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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