Korean Box Office: Warm Bodies First Foreign No.1 of 2013 (03/15-03/17, 2013)

Warm Bodies First Foreign No.1 of 2013

Business was once again a little slow this weekend in what is generally on off period for the movies in Korea. That said both admissions (1.63 million) and local market share (60%) were marginally up from last year. However it was a Hollywood film that took the top spot, breaking an 11-week streak of local chart-toppers. It was also the first non-Korean first place finish of 2013.

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Warm Bodies (us)	13/03/14	26.00%	423,323	503,751	475
2	My Paparotti	13/03/14	21.70%	360,300	443,223	546
3	New World	13/02/21	20.60%	322,609	3,960,276	456
4	Miracle in Cell No.7	13/01/23	10.80%	180,957	12,485,450	346
5	Psychometry	13/03/07	5.00%	78,010	489,025	308
6	Oz: The Great and Powerful (us)	13/03/07	4.10%	59,091	326,803	275
7	Lincoln (us)	13/03/14	3.50%	57,986	72,035	212
8	Gladiators of Rome (it)	13/03/14	1.90%	33,651	35,662	274
9	Jack the Giant Slayer (us)	13/02/28	1.50%	26,335	944,889	173
10	The Berlin File	13/01/30	1.10%	16,417	7,146,694	116

Warm Bodies, the surprise zombie romcom hit, has continued its global success with a no.1 finish in Korea by taking in 423,323 admissions. A solid start that indicates a likely finish over one million admissions.

Meanwhile, the major Korean debut of the week was Showbox's musical against-the-odds drama My Paparotti, starring Han Suk-kyu and Lee Je-hoon. The pic took in 360,300 in its debut. An okay start that will need some solid word of mouth to make its way towards profitability.

New World fell two spots as it slowed 37% for 322,609. The hit gangster drama starring Lee Jeong-jae, Choi Min-sik and Hwang Joeng-min, is now only 40,000 off the four million mark.

The gigantic hit comedy-drama Miracle in Cell No.7 receded 39% for 180,957. During the week it crossed Masquerade to become the third highest-grossing Korean film of all time.

Psychometry fell hard after a poort start as it lost almost 70% of its business for a paltry 78,010. The psychic crime drama starring Kim Gang-woo and Kim Beom will now fall well short of the one million mark.

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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