KBO: The Tower Repeats to Ring in the New Year (01/04-01/06, 2013)

The Tower Repeats to Ring in the New Year

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Tower	12/25/12	32.80%	812,841	3,539,879	638
2	Les Miserables (uk/us)	12/19/12	21.40%	525,258	4,207,834	587
3	Life of Pi (us)	1/1/13	17.70%	345,807	610,835	392
4	Love 911	12/19/12	10.00%	246,937	2,221,828	374
5	Wreck-It Ralph (us)	12/13/12	3.60%	92,471	802,151	279
6	The Hobbit (us)	12/13/12	3.50%	79,246	2,776,058	262
7	Zambezi (de)	12/25/12	2.90%	78,403	390,759	238
8	Niko 2: Little Brother (gr)	12/25/12	2.20%	60,030	371,661	226
9	Marrying the Mafia 5	12/19/12	2.00%	50,052	1,133,216	210
10	The Nutcrack 3D (us)	1/3/13	1.00%	26,933	34,821	132

Business remained very strong following Tuesday New Year's day holiday, resulting in close to 2.5 million admissions, a 35% jump over last year. However, the first weekend of the year was won by Hollywood, as local fare was only able to post a 36% share, largely due to a lack of Korean titles on marquees.

Staying almost flat at number 1 was The Tower with 812,841, which has already soared over the 3.5 million mark. 5 million seems a sure thing at this point though it should begin to wind down now that holidays are behind us.

Les Miserables continues its strong run with another 525,258 (down only 30%). With 4.2 million and counting, Korea looks to be one of the strongest global markets for this popular musical.

Opening in third place was Ang Lee's highly regarded Life of Pi which managed 345,807. A strong performance for a hard to market film as the unique visual spectacle has been performing strongly in IMAX.

Love 911 slid just over 30% as it posted 246,937, leaping over the 2 million milestone in the process. The film will end well over 2.5 and may come close to 3.

US animation Wreck-It Ralph ascended to fifth place with 92,471 as it looks to score a million admissions.

Next week will see CJ's musical drama My Little Hero, Showbox's shaman gangster comedy Man on the edge and the much-touted Cloud Atlas bustling into theaters. On the back of a big press machine, look for the latter the clinch the top spot.

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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