Korean Box Office: Soft Opening for C'EST SI BON Ahead of Lunar New Year (2015 WK 6)

By Pierce Conran

In the warm up to holidays, 1.81 million people visited theaters as a Korean film reclaimed the top of the charts. Local films were dominant with 62% of the market.

	Title	Market Share	Weekend	% Change	Total	Screens	Screenings
1	C’est si bon	29.5%	533,677	NEW	641,279	829	12,063
2	Big Hero 6 (US)	18.9%	352,893	-42.7%	2,250,577	611	5,617
3	Ode to My Father	12.4%	227,970	-45.1%	13,122,023	489	5,276
4	Jupiter Ascending (US)	12.5%	207,751	NEW	252,902	561	7,177
5	Gangnam Blues	8.4%	145,920	-63.5%	2,080,715	433	3,994
6	The Strong and Mini Special Forces	4.1%	78,550	NEW	83,630	318	1,512
7	Spirited Away (JP)	3.8%	69,376	NEW	85,232	339	2,266
8	Octonauts (UK)	1.7%	32,862	NEW	36,678	210	806
9	Shoot My Heart	1.4%	26,323	-84.5%	371,705	270	1,580
10	Love Forecast	1.4%	25,683	-77.8%	1,879,057	182	1,176

Taking the top spot over the weekend was C'est si bon, one of two major local films being released during the Lunar New Year period (the other is the new Detective K next week). The 60s music romance easily topped the charts with 533,677 viewers ($3.94 million) but its debut was far from impressive. However, this kind of release is designed for older crowds, who typically need word of mouth to kick in before making a move, so there's plenty of time for its fortunes to improve.

Dropping to second was the animation Big Hero 6. It fell 43% for a third weekend take of 353,893 admissions ($2.52 million). The Disney film has brought in 2.25 million viewers ($16.21 million) to date.

Down to third in its eighth weekend was megahit Ode to My Father, bringing in another 227,970 spectators ($1.66 million) to lift its total to a spectacular 13.12 million admissions ($92.88 million). On Saturday, the blockbuster melodrama crossed The Host (2006) to become second only to Roaring Currents in the all time rankings (more on that story here).

Opening in fourth place was the sci-fi Jupiter Ascending, from the Wachowski Brothers. The film debuted with 207,751 spectators ($1.67 million), which is more or less in line with their previous film, Cloud Atlas (2012). Both works feature local star Bae Doo-na.

In fifth place, Gangnam Blues suffered a sharp 63.5% fall in its third weekend. It drew an additional 145,920 ($1.12 million) viewers, which now puts it at 2.08 million admissions ($15.35 million) in total. Though underwhelming, the gangster pic's performance is far from a disaster and the presence of star Lee Min-ho will assure it has some life in other Asian markets.

Next week, the big release will be the period action-comedy sequel Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island, coming four years after the original hit. Though none are a threat for the top spot, a number of foreign releases will also be hitting screens ahead of the Lunar New Year, including Kingsmen: The Secret Service and The Seventh Son.

All statistics come from the Korean Film Council's KOBIS box office tracking service.

New Korean Films is a weekly feature which provide an in-depth look at new local releases in Korea. For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Korean Reviews, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (Korean Standard Time). Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

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