KBO: Miracle Stays Flat for 4th Straight Weekend (02/15-02/17, 2013)

Miracle Stays Flat for 4th Straight Weekend

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Miracle in Cell No.7	13/01/23	41.20%	1,129,726	8,867,424	721
2	The Berlin File	13/01/30	24.10%	644,456	5,980,252	579
3	A Good Day to Die Hard (us)	13/02/06	7.80%	210,178	1,297,703	329
4	How to Use Guys With Secret Tips	13/02/14	7.40%	200,891	266,891	367
5	Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (us)	13/02/14	5.70%	138,407	177,571	297
6	Marco Makaco (de)	13/02/14	2.90%	88,766	96,848	276
7	South Bound	13/02/06	3.00%	84,070	772,586	240
8	The Snow Queen (ru)	13/02/07	1.90%	58,181	245,463	229
9	Silver Linings Playbook (uk)	13/02/14	1.90%	48,935	70,731	223
10	Pororo: the Racing Adventure	13/01/23	1.10%	30,952	867,20	102

The thunderous February box office streak continued with a big 2.75 million admissions recorded along with a 77% market share for Korean films, compared with 2 million and 73% this time a year ago.

Leading the fray once again was Miracle in Cell No.7 which was down only 13.6% for 1,129,726. I'm not sure if any film has had over had four straight weekends over a million admissions, The Thieves and Masquerade both managed three last year. By the end of today Miracle will probably be over the nine million admissions mark and with this kind of momentum it's only a matter of time before the vaunted ten million mark falls as well, which could happen within the week.

The Berlin File meanwhile dropped a heavier 45.7% for 644,456. It's total is a fraction off six million and at this point it will probably cross seven but not much further. A solid result but perhaps not as high as some were hoping. Like American blockbusters in their home market, once the initial buzz faded, so did the audience.

The fifth entry in the Die Hard franchise fell a hefty 58.6% in its sophomore round for 210,178. Though not performing as strongly as other international markets, such as Japan, this is still a decent performance for an action film in the Korean market.

How to Use Guys With Secret Tips, despite good reviews, had a relatively poor showing with only 200,891 during its opening weekend. Given the history of the romantic comedy genre, this is unlikely to improve from here on out.

Fallin three spots to number 7, the Kim Yun-soek vehicle South Bound suffered a catastrophic 72.5% fall as most of its theaters were stripped. It's 84,070 weekend indicates that the film will fail to cross the one million mark, remarkable given Kim's involvement.

Next week will see the release of the hotly anticipated gangster pic New World which will be riding in on the back of some extremely positive reviews. Also opening will be Kim Jee-woon's Hollywood debut The Last Stand, the curiosity factor will make this a contender but without his name the film would likely fail completely, so it remains to be seen how well it performs. An Ethics Lesson, a new Korean erotic thriller, will also be opening but will probably be lost in the busy marketplace.


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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