KBO: The Tower Rises to First in Powerful Xmas Weekend (12/28-12/30, 2013)

The Tower Rises to First in Powerful Xmas Weekend

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Tower	12/25/12	30.70%	873,155	1,694,650	617
2	Les Miserables (uk/us)	12/19/12	26.70%	751,684	2,955,910	621
3	Love 911	12/19/12	13.00%	370,787	1,596,902	427
4	The Hobbit (us)	12/13/12	8.40%	204,958	2,533,231	383
5	Marrying the Mafia 5	12/19/12	5.00%	144,316	961,275	338
6	Wreck-It Ralph (us)	12/13/12	3.90%	113,083	570,142	320
7	Niko 2: Little Brother (de)	12/25/12	3.20%	95,513	207,057	284
8	Zambezi (us)	12/25/12	3.00%	86,922	205,150	273
9	My P.S. Partner	12/6/12	2.20%	57,345	1,767,310	157
10	Pokemon (jp)	12/19/12	0.70%	38,781	316,515	164

Business was booming over the Christmas weekend as spectators braved the cold weather to drive admissions up to 2.84 million, a slight increase over last year. However, the local market share saw a much sharper rise as it almost doubled to 51%, a very strong number for the season.

Leading the frame was the very last wide Korean release of the year, the big-budget disaster tentpole The Tower. The film debuted to a solid 873,155 following its enormous debut on Christmas on Tuesday, when it posted the second-highest opening day for a Korean film. Things are looking good for the film as its prepares to conquer the New Year's holiday.

Meanwhile Les Miserables barely saw any decline as it scored another 751,684. The musical blockbuster is already less than a day away from the 3 million mark. An extraordinary performance to date and there no reason to think it will let up any time soon.

At number 3, Love 911 stayed strong as it was off only 10% for 370,787. The film is guaranteed to pass the 2 million mark at this point, securing profitability in the process.

The Hobbit saw another big drop as it saw its take sliced in half for 204,958. At this rate the blockbuster may not cross the 3 million milestone, though it will certainly come close.

Marrying the Mafia 5 rounded out the top 5 with 144,316, a steep slide from its debut.


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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