KBO: Masquerade Lords Over Chuseok Holiday (09/28-09/30, 2012)

Masquerade Lords Over Chuseok Holiday

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Masquerade	9/13/12	47.70%	1,379,364	5,234,423	935
2	Taken 2 (us)	9/27/12	27.80%	776,843	962,350	682
3	Spy	9/20/12	9.30%	275,007	840,498	454
4	Brave (us)	9/27/12	7.40%	208,613	223,901	435
5	Ted (us)	9/27/12	2.40%	66,326	83,150	248
6	Ghost Sweepers	10/3/12	1.60%	48,271	53,628	176
7	Wolf Children (jp)	9/13/12	0.90%	28,266	217,147	145
8	Tad the Lost Explorer (us)	9/20/12	0.70%	20,515	127,868	194
9	Pieta	9/6/12	0.60%	18,365	570,949	142
10	Resident Evil 5 (us)	9/13/12	0.40%	10,870	550,480	132

Business was booming this weekend as the Chuseok holiday (Korean thanksgiving) fell on a Sunday. Overall, admissions clocked in at almost 3 million and the local market share index was strong at 60%. This is both much higher haul than last year's similar frame's 1.9 million (though that did not fall on Chuseok) and significantly below it's domestic 88% share.

While no new Korean releases appeared on the chart this week, Masquerade more than made up for the slight local fare by taking half the weekend's business with 1,379,364 tickets sold. This represents a 15% increase over last weekend which itself was a 10% leap over its debut. It has also crossed the 5 million mark. Given that both Monday and Wednesday are a holiday in Korea, it should cross 6 before it heads into next weekend. 7 also looks all but assured though one must think that following the holiday period it will finally start to lose some steam.

Taken 2 opened very strongly in second place with 776,843 but is unlikely to keep its audience for much longer, word coming through on the picture has been poor.

Spy slipped a spot in its sophomore frame though lost only 20% of its audience on account of the holiday. That still only added up to 275,007, which is not an impressive figure for a pic that was positioned as a holiday release. Poisonous word of mouth shouldn't keep this pic from crossing the 1 million mark but it shan't go far over it.

Two new US releases rounded out the top 5: Pixar's latest animation Brave with a sleepy 208,613 and the Mark Whalberg comedy Ted with a paltry 66,326.

Next week the prohibition era Hollywood gangster Lawless and the Korean shaman comedy Ghost Sweepers will go head to head with Masquerade which will be looking for a 4th consecutive victory. I'm not feeling much buzz for Ghost Sweepers but it's been a rollercoaster year for the local industry so we shall see!

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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