Korean Box Office: Man of Steel Not Quite Great Enough for Secretly (06/14-06/16, 2013)

Business was up again this past weekend as just over 2.5 million tickets were sold, though this was largely a result of two blockbusters ducking it out for the top spot. Each scored over one million, a achievement in itself though not the first time it's happened. Meanwhile, the local market share stood at 45%, ecent given the time of year and on par with last year's figure. However, with only two Korean titles in the top 10, one wonders what that figure might look like with a stronger mix of local fare on the marquees.

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Secretly Greatly	13/06/05	42.10%	1,053,983	5,267,923	925
2	Man of Steel (us)	13/06/13	46.20%	1,025,784	1,205,677	998
3	Star Trek: Into Darkness (us)	13/05/30	4.00%	97,185	1,467,272	308
4	Horror Stories 2	13/06/05	2.40%	62,485	465,683	281
5	The Croods (us)	13/05/16	1.70%	44,976	870,163	225
6	Furious 6 (us)	13/05/22	0.90%	21,323	1,774,069	121
7	Olympus Has Fallen (us)	13/06/05	0.50%	11,290	161,751	86
8	Before Midnight (us)	13/05/22	0.40%	9,014	163,436	41
9	The Great Gatsby (us)	13/05/16	0.30%	8,126	1,418,941	47
10	Nazuma Eleven GO (jp)	13/06/05	0.20%	5,465	36,269	67

After falling to second on Thursday, Secretly Greatly reclaimed the top spot over the weekend with another mighty 1,053,983 admissions. However, that represented a significant 50% drop for the youth-oriented pic and does not bode well for the rest of its run. Regardless, it's already well over the five million mark, good enough for number three on the yearly Korean chart, and should still register a few more milestones going forward.

Barely missing out on the top spot was the debut of the hotly anticipated blockbuster Man of Steel as it attracted 1,025,784 spectators over the frame. Superman may not have been first, but his performance far exceeded that of the previous film featuring the character, as Superman Returns only opened to 600k back in 2006. It shouldn't face a great deal of competition next week so unless word of mouth is bad, it may post some more strong numbers. A finish over three million seems assured.

Star Trek lost 65% of its business for 97,185 as it quickly marches out of theaters. It's about to cross 1.5 million but shouldn't go much further. Its running about 60% better than its predecessor but some were expecting a stronger result.

Horror Stories II had a similar drop as it brought in another 62,485 admissions. Poised to cross the half million mark in days, it could double its predecessor's total before long.

Still hanging in at number five, despite a 45% drop, was US animation The Croods with 44,976. It's managed to stick around for a long time but it may still fall short of the one million milestone.

Next week will see the Brad Pitt zombie action-thriller World War Z march into theaters while diverse local releases, including a melodrama (A Wedding Invitation) and two K-horrors (A Puppet and Doctor) will also be opening. However, it is unlikely that any will take the top spot but there presence should boost overall business.

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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