Korean Box Office Update (11/11-11/13, 2011)

Weekend of November 11-13:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Punch	10/20/11	462,670	3,382,457
2	Immortals (us)	11/10/11	391,317	490,466
3	Real Steel (us)	10/12/11	175,253	2,850,840
4	You're My Pet	11/10/11	158,219	208,344
5	Penny Pinchers	11/10/11	111,793	158,337
6	In Time (us)	10/27/11	33,774	523,998
7	Couples	11/2/11	28,850	307,340
8	Always	10/20/11	23,065	987,972
9	The Help (us)	11/3/11	14,569	89,441
10	A Reason to Live	10/27/11	7,266	94,243
-	The Kick	11/3/11	6,111	45,660
-	Mr. Idol	11/3/11	3,742	69,878
-	King of Pigs	11/3/11	1,991	7,786
-	The Crucible	9/22/11	853	4,668,645
-	The Client	9/29/11	542	2,395,115

Punch led another strong weekend at the Korean box office with a total 1.44 million tickets sold, of which  55% were for Korean films.  This represented a slight uptick for tickets sold but a drop for Korean market share versus the same weekend last year.  Though, of late, many Korean films have been underperforming, the slack has been picked up by a handful of particularly successful films.  It's great to see so many Korean films stack up millions of admissions but also a little worrying that this is happening at the expense of many other films which are barely registering with moviegoers.

Despite some big competition from the just-released Immortals, Punch scored its fourth consecutive win with another big 462,670.  This is the first time it has dropped since it release, though a 35% decline versus last week's final figures is nothing to be worried about, in fact that percentage will likely shrink as the final count is tallied for this weekend's receipts.  The well-received picture now sits on 3,382,457 and will quickly cross 4 million with a very good chance of challenging for 5.  It remains to be seen whether the word of mouth as reached it zenith.  Like Sunny earlier this year, it is not inconceivable that it will increase again.

Immortals opened with 391,347, a respectable figure given how it has done in other territories.  Real Steel added another 175,253 (a 40% drop) and is now within striking distance of the 3 million mark.  If it crosses it, it will be only the fifth non-Korean film to do so this year, an impressive result.

You're My Pet managed a 158,219 opening weekend without the benefit of any previews last week.  For a mid-level film this is an okay start but if it drops fast next week, it won't be seen as a satisfactory result.  Similarly Penny Pinchers went wide this weekend with 111,793, another so-so opening that will be tested this coming weekend.

Despite some positive word of mouth, Couples completely fell apart, dropping a catastrophic 84%.  People who have seen it have expressed surprise at the film, expecting something mediocre and being delighted to be contradicted.  Is this poor result the fault of bad marketing?  Why is it that people assumed this was going to be a bad film?  Perhaps it never had a chance.

Always fell hard again, about 70%, but 23,065 weekend has brought it very close to the 1 million mark, which it will likely cross in the next week or 10 days.  Not a bad result but still a little underwhelming.

In Time and The Help also saw considerable drops this weekend, though the former, with over half a million admissions has had a decent performance.

After all but disappearing from marquees last weekend, A Reason to Live has bounced back, growing nearly 200%.  Though the resulting 7,266 weekend is not necessarily something to be jubilant about.  Still, the film is set to cross 100,000 admissions now so it will save some face.

The other of last week's openers, The Kick and Mr. Idol, fell 80% and 90% respectively.  Even with significant media coverage, these films have completely floundered at the box office.  What went wrong exactly? The Kick's failure does not bode well for further Thai-Korean co-productions or indeed for martial arts films in general while the dud that is Mr. Idol seems to show little overlap between the K-Movie and K-Pop worlds.


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 Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (11/05-11/11, 2011)

A massive haul this week with 50 reviews of a wide range of films, with a number for the popular War of the Arrows.  Many came as a result of the London Korean Film Festival but I also found a lot of new sources, including Hanguk Yeonghwa who, covering the LKFF, delivered no less than 6 writeups.

Enjoy!

CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

A Reason to Live

(The Korea Times, November 10, 2011)

Silenced

(Film Journal, November 4, 2011)

You Pet

(hancinema.net, November 6, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(examiner.com, November 10, 2011)

(Twitch, November 4, 2011)

A Drummer's Passion

(heyuguys.co.uk, November 7, 2011)

Arirang

(Movie Habit, November 10, 2011)

Bleak Night

(Chicago Sun-Times, November 2, 2011)

(Twitch, November 7, 2011)

Detective K: Secret of a Virtuous Widow

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 10, 2011)

Ghastly

(hancinema.net, November 5, 2011)

Hanaan

(Film Fracture, November 8, 2011)

Haunters

(Movie Habit, November 8, 2011)

King of Pigs

(Joong Ang Daily, November 4, 2011)

Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild

(London Korea Links, November 6, 2011)

Midnight FM

(iCov, November 11, 2011)

Night Fishing

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 9, 2011)

(Hangul Celluloid, November 10, 2011)

Ordinary Days

(Init_Scenes, November 8, 2011)

Sector 7

(Fangoria, November 8, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, November 10, 2011)

Sunny

(Eastern Kicks, November 10, 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 7, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, November 8, 2011)

The Day He Arrives

(Kimchi Soul, November 8, 2011)

(Movie Habit, November 10, 2011)

The Front Line

(Eastern Kicks, November 9, 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 8, 2011)

The Housemaid

(Asian Movie Pulse, November 4, 2011)

The Journals of Musan

(Banana Times, November 8, 2011)

(nanoomi.net, November 8, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(Film 4, November 10, 2011)

Troubleshooter

(Init_Scenes, November 6, 2011)

War of the Arrows

(Film Business Asia, November 9, 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 6, 2011)

(heyuguys.co.uk, November 4, 2011)

(MCM Buzz, November 7, 2011)

(Seoul Beats, November 9, 2011)

(Variety, November 6, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Chunhyang, 2000

(bltnotjustasandwich.com, November 6, 2011)

D-Wars, 2007

(Bullet Reviews, November 7, 2011)

Don't Look Back, 2006

(Seen in Jeonju, November 9, 2011)

Going By the Book, 2007

(cineawesome!, November 5, 2011)

(ROK Drop, November 10, 2011)

Memories of Murder, 2003

(Spinetingler Mag, November 10, 2011)

Scandal Makers, 2008

(Otherwhere, November 8, 2011)

Taegukgi, 2004

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 1, 2011)

The Chaser, 2008

(Korean Class Massive, November 8, 2011)

The Flower Girl, 1972

(North Korean Films, November 6, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (11/04-11/06, 2011)

Weekend of November 4-6, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Punch	10/20/11	574,631	2,465,751
2	Real Steel (us)	10/12/11	245,537	2,499,600
3	Couples	11/2/11	144,623	189,965
4	In Time (us)	10/27/11	87,109	406,663
5	Always	10/20/11	60,106	894,813
6	Mr. Idol	11/3/11	33,391	48,780
7	The Help (us)	11/3/11	33,181	49,556
8	The Kick	11/3/11	20,865	27,101
9	Guzaarish (India)	11/3/11	18,851	30,894
10	Johnny English Reborn (uk)	11/2/11	17,277	20,362
-	Penny Pinchers	11/10/11	9,475	10,175
-	Teacher and the Devils	10/27/11	3,579	12,535
-	The Crucible	9/22/11	3,561	4,662,753
-	The Client	9/29/11	2,880	2,389,540
-	A Reason to Live	10/27/11	2,573	55,583

Business remained strong this weekend with 1.28 million admissions, another year-on-year increase, and a 65% market share for Korean films.  Punch is once again the big news this week as it has topped the chart for a third consecutive week.  Even more impressive is that after last week's big increase over its opening weekend, it doesn't seem to have lost any business this time around.  Its 574,631 take lifted its total to 2,465,751 which is already good enough for no. 8 on the yearly chart.  Word of mouth is very strong for this pic and it may well have a lot more milestones in store.

Real Steel same in at no. 2 for the third straight week with 245,537, which is down about a third from last week.  It has performed very strongly over the past month and looks set to cross 3 million in the coming weeks which should land it on the combined top 10 for the year.

Couples went wide this week on nearly 400 screens but only mustered a so-so 144,623.  With Punch dominating the way it is, Couples will likely take a big drop next week and disappear from marquees soon after.

Always dropped by two thirds for 60,106 and has now accumulated 894,813 to date.  The 1 million mark is tantalizingly close but may be a fraction too far out of reach.  While not a bad number for a romance film, this performance will likely be seen as a bit disappointing given the saturated marketing surrounding it, especially as it opened the recent new-look Busan International Film Festival.  Bad reviews and poor word of mouth are what sunk it in the end.

Mr. Idol, which has had one of the more aggressive marketing campaigns of the season, opening with an embarrassing 33,391, that's a little less than 100 tickets per screen for its first weekend.  As enormous as K-Pop is (at home and abroad), it has yet to be successfully mined for a feature film.  Execs may be scratching their heads at the poor performance of what seemed like a surefire hit but in Korea you can't beat bad reviews, no matter how big your fan base is.

The Kick, which has generated a lot of buzz and press coverage as the first Thai-Korean marital arts production, also got off to a poor start with 20,865, unless these are previews which, at 154 screens, may well be the case.

Three other movies opened this weekend from across the world, The Help (USA) with 33,181, Guzaarish (India) with 18,851, and Johnny English Reborn (UK) with 17,277.  These are all mediocre hauls but none of these pictures could have been expected to perform well in Korea.

Penny Pinchers had its previews this weekend and will go wide later this week but its 9,475 start does not bode particularly well.  I imagine it will open somewhere in the middle of the chart.  The big question is if Punch can continue its extraordinary run!



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 Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (10/28-10/30, 2011)

Weekend of October 28-30, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Punch	10/20/11	594,125	1,510,522
2	Real Steel (us)	10/12/11	355,383	2,085,158
3	In Time (us)	10/27/11	188,317	220,966
4	Always	10/20/11	173,033	735,159
5	The Client	9/29/11	39,924	2,367,018
6	Friends with Benefits (us)	10/27/11	29,920	46,366
7	The Three Musketeers (uk)	10/12/11	28,755	644,117
8	Silenced	9/22/11	27,994	4,640,739
9	A Reason To Live	10/27/11	27,424	39,162
10	The Tree of Life (us)	10/27/11	19,205	24,663
-	Teacher and the Devils	10/27/11	3,012	6,078
-	You Pet	11/10/11	2,305	2,305
-	HIT	10/13/11	1,538	109,167
-	Couples	11/2/11	1,456	7,994

Another healthy weekend at the box office, although with little discernible difference from last week's.  Admissions totalled 1.53 million, yet another increase over last year.  The market share held steady at 56% which was below last year's weekend (70%) when The Unjust opened.

Punch remained on top after a strong start, not only that but ut managed to increase by nearly 20% in its sophomore frame for a 594,125 three-day and 1,510,522 total.  This will certainly be Kim Yun-seok's fifth straight feature to top 2 million, a remarkable feat.  The question is how far can it go in the coming weeks, word of mouth seems to be strong so I'm betting it will cross 3 million before long.

Real Steel declined a modest 30% to 355,383 and managed to cross 2 million in the process.  A strong performance for a film that has underwhelmed in its homeland.  Justin Timberlake seems to be flavor of the week as his romcom Friends With Benefits, which opened months ago in the west, and his current In Time both opened to middling figures, 29,920 and 188,317 respectively.  Friends With Benefits seemed to fare particularly badly but I don't think romcoms play well in Korea since the homegrown product in that department is so strong.

Always lost half its audience after a midlevel start and wound up with 173,033.  At this point it may or may not cross the 1 million mark.  The Client, which had played strong throughout the month took a big tumble as it prepares to exit theaters. It added 39,924 to an impressive 2,367,018 total.  Silenced performed similarly as it dropped to 27,994 for what will likely to its last weekend in the top 10.  It has sold 4,640,739 tickets to date and sits at number 4 on the yearly chart.

Song Hye-kyo's new movie, A Reason to Live, which premiered at Busan, got off to a very disappointing start with 27,424 admissions.  This will likely be its one and only week in the top 10.

Next week, the anticipated marital arts Thai-Korean co-production The Kick will make its bow in theaters.


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 Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.