Korean Box Office Update (02/03-02/05, 2012)

Nameless Gangster Leads the Charge as Local Films Clean Out the Competition

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Nameless Gangster	2/2/12	38.90%	917,379	1,092,987	701
2	Unbowed	1/18/12	16.40%	406,646	2,642,340	454
3	Dancing Queen	1/18/12	12.80%	322,688	2,734,699	436
4	Tarbosaurus 3D	1/26/12	11.20%	219,930	662,139	320
5	Papa	2/1/12	7.90%	213,946	292,295	414
6	Happy Feet 2	2/2/12	4.40%	99,405	109,141	312
7	Puss in Boots	1/12/12	3.50%	83,013	2,005,691	247
8	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island	1/19/12	1.40%	36,000	1,119,487	174
9	I Don't Know How She Does It	2/2/12	1.30%	30,324	39,845	165
10	Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol	12/15/11	0.70%	17,438	7,538,551	89

Local films dominated the marketplace this weekend as they took the top 5 spots and an 88% market share, effectively wiping out Hollywood's mark on Korean theaters over the time frame.  Total admissions stood at 2.36 million, a very healthy figure for this time of year.  The chief element of success was a strong variety of enticing projects which have mostly benefited from positive reactions.

Leading the charge was the hotly anticipated Nameless Gangster which did not disappoint, both with its positive notices and supercharged 917,379 opening weekend.  It's no small feat coming so close to the million mark at this time of year but even more encouraging in light of the strong competition from Lunar New Year's leading releases.  It will probably remain strong next weekend, likely taking the crown again but will face stiff competition thereafter following the debut of Howling.

Unbowed slowed a little over 40% in its third weekend, winding up with 406,646 which put it past 2.5 millin admissions.  Dancing Queen was next with 322,688, a 45% drop, it also crossed the 2.5 million mark.  Dancing Queen is still in the lead but Unbowed is likely to pull ahead before too long.  3 million is a guarantee for both but it will be interesting to see if they go further, especially Unbowed.

Tarbosaurus 3D dropped about a third and succeeded in lording over the numerous other children's offerings with its 219,930 take. It looks set to cross the one million mark before long, another feather in Korean animation's cap.

Papa also opened this weekend but was overwhelmed by immense local competition, finding itself lost amongst event pictures.  It pulled in 213,946 viewers in its opening bow and is not likely to improve on that in coming weeks.  Seeing how the slate was shaping up at the beginning of the year, the distributors probably should have considered pushing its release back to a less crowded weekend.

The next three entries in the chart were Hollywood kids movies Happy Feet 2 (99,405), Puss in Boots (83,013), and Journey 2: Mysterious Island (36,000).  Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle I Don't Know How She Does It was a non-starter with 30,324 while Mission Impossible 4 is now winding up its extraordinary run, amassing an additional 17,438.  Its 7,538,551 total is enormous but Transformers 3's chart-topping figure is now soundly out of reach.

The local industry is on a bit of a roll and I am now very curious to see how things will shake up over the next few weekends.  Howling pushed its release date back a week, a wise choice given Nameless Gangster's strong performance especially given the film's similar appeal.  So quick on its heels it might also have overloaded the marketplace, it is now being released February 16.  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The War Horse are opening next weekend but neither stands a chance of knocking Nameless Gangster from its perch.  Korean doc Two Lines will also be bowing in limited release.

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 evening or 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 (01/13-01/15, 2012)

Puss in Boots Holds Local Films at Bay

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Puss in Boots (us)	1/11/12	33.80%	590,740	704,725	593
2	Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (us)	12/15/11	18.00%	362,326	6,914,588	461
3	Love On-Air	1/5/12	10.80%	225,174	781,810	358
4	The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (us)	1/11/12	9.50%	185,758	228,385	321
5	Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (us)	12/21/11	7.70%	154,399	2,160,333	270
6	Perfect Game	12/21/11	6.40%	128,734	1,392,738	266
7	The Outback	1/12/12	3.30%	70,297	87,383	234
8	White Vengeance (hk)	1/11/12	2.70%	55,498	70,345	163
9	My Way	12/21/11	2.20%	45,009	2,121,331	219
10	Friends: Naki on Monster Island (jp)	12/29/11	1.70%	36,930	496,880	191

For the fifth weekend in a row a major Hollywood release has trumped local fare at the Korean box office.  A new champion, of the animated variety, rose to the top this week.  Overall business was up from 1.47 to 1.75 million admissions year on year while once again the market share for Korean films tumbled to 24%, from last year's 43%.

Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots had a big weekend with 590,740 tickets sold.  That's a lot more than Megamind which took the top spot at the same time last year.

MI4 added another 362,326 tickets to its enormous haul as it dropped less than a third and is now inches from the 7 million mark an could still threaten another milestone, making it the biggest film released in 2011.

Love On-Air (aka Wonderful Radio) had an encouraging small drop (20%) in its sophomore frame which, given poor reviews, I wasn't expecting.  The future looks a little rosier for the midlevel film but after such a mediocre opening this is closer to damage control than success.  Still, if it continues like this it could end up well north of the one million mark.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opened with 185,758 which is not a particularly encouraging figure for a film tat was expected to play strongly in international territories, maybe word of mouth will bolster its run further down the line.  Perhaps Sherlock Holmes sequel Game of Shadows dropped about a third as it crossed the 2 million mark with its 154,399 weekend, a good showing for a sequel that has underperformed elsewhere.

Perfect Game stayed more or less flat this weekend with 154,399, which is impressive.  It will come close to the two million mark but is unlikely to cross it.  Animated film The Outback, featuring a number of K-pop star on vocal duties, opened soft 70,297.  Truth be told I hadn't even heard of the film before this weekend, I'm not sue who else did.

Hong Kong period epic White Vengeance began its run with 55,498 while mega-blockbuster and equally large box office bomb My Way slowed to 45,009 in its probable final top 10 finish.  Friends: Naki on Monster Island Japanese anime roudned out the top 10 with 36,930.

Next Week:  Lunar day weekend is nearly upon us and it's about time as the tired current local fare is in desperate need of replacement.  Opening next week are Pacemaker, Dancing Queen, Neverending Story, and Unbowed. Pacemaker looks to come out on top but let's hope it can nudge out foreign competition for a much needed local win.

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 evening or 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 (01/06-01/08, 2012)

MI4 Takes Fourth Victory Lap, Closes in on Record

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (us)	12/15/11	477,851	6,243,796
2	Wonderful Radio	1/5/12	281,296	334,855
3	Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (us)	12/21/11	223,500	1,862,606
4	Perfect Game	12/21/11	133,580	1,155,313
5	Friends: Naki on Monster Island (jp)	12/29/11	118,342	407,958
6	My Way	12/21/11	112,905	2,002,323
7	The Darkest Hour (us)	1/5/12	82,684	98,450
8	Lion King 3D (us)	7/9/94	46,257	270,993
9	Spellbound	12/1/11	46,231	2,945,469
10	Pokemon: White - Victini and Zekrom (jp)	12/22/11	30,116	345,153
-	My Barefoot Friend	12/15/11	378	2,970
-	Bleak Night	3/3/11	139	22,350
-	Green Days	6/23/11	120	51,195
-	King of Pigs	11/3/11	118	18,782
-	Jam Docu KANGJUNG	12/22/11	68	502

Local business had another tough frame with only one midlevel opening and diminishing returns from holdovers as Hollywood continued to trump domestic offerings.  1.62 million tickets were sold this past weekend, a marginal increase of last year's comparable weekend whereas the Korean film market share was down to 35% from 75%.

Mission Impossible IV continued its remarkable run, banking another 477,851 admissions, though that was down a little over 50%.  With 6,243,796 tickets sold to date it's still another 1.5 million away from Transformers 3's 2011 crown which may be mission impossible but we'll see if Ethan Hunt and crew can pull it off.

Wonderful Radio, in the midst of terrible reviews had a so-so opening with 281,296.  Assuming a less than encouraging word of mouth, the picture may see a quick exit from theaters, especially as it loses screens and business in two weeks to lunar day releases.

The second Sherlock Holmes lost about half its business in its third outing, garnering 223,500 sales.  It looks set to cross the two million mark, which will likely be its last major milestone as it continues to diminish through the month.

Perfect Game has crossed the one million mark but has done so with little fanfare as the well-received baseball pic has added 133,580 to its total this weekend.  A mediocre performance for a big holiday release.

Meanwhile My Way dropped all the way to number 6 as it added 112,905 admissions and has now inched over the 2 million mark, so much for 10 million!

Spellbound at number 9 sold another 46,231 tickets as it winds down its run and is now very close to the 3 millin mark.

Jesus Hospital is the Korean film opening next week and I can't imagine it will be in any position to boost domestic ticket sales.  We'll have to wait until the following Lunar Day weekend when a number of high profile releases find their way into theaters.  MI4 may spend a fifth week on top, unless The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opens big.


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 (12/30, 2011 - 01/01, 2012)

Korean Films Outdone By Hollywood as 2012 Gets Underway

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (us)	12/15/11	1,013,668	5,386,797
2	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (us)	12/21/11	448,287	1,432,109
3	My Way	12/21/11	416,646	1,735,608
4	Perfect Game	12/21/11	238,191	890,261
5	Friends Naki on Monster Island (jp)	12/29/11	166,347	203,118
6	Spellbound	12/1/11	147,183	2,819,392
7	The Lion King 3D (us)	12/29/11	139,178	170,962
8	Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Reshiram (jp)	12/22/11	75,759	285,518
9	Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked (us)	12/15/11	61,468	516,727
10	Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Zekrom (jp)	12/22/11	57,113	234,721
-	Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!	11/17/11	693	10,172
-	My Barefoot Friend	12/15/11	301	2,498
-	Punch	10/20/11	181	5,316,625
-	Green Days: Dinosaur and I	6/23/11	136	51,622
-	●REC	11/24/11	80	2,843

Business was on par with the last New Year's weekend, with 2.8 million tickets sold but whereas Korean films accounted for a 70% market share last year, this time around they cobbled together a measly 30% as yet another high profile Korean blockbuster has floundered and Hollywood fare has proven more palatable to local audiences.

For the third straight weekend, Tom Cruise's fourth Mission Impossible has taken the top spot and once again with over a million admissions.  It's 1,013,668 take has increased its haul to an exceptional 5,386,797 which already good enough for No. 4 on the 2011 chart.  Sherlock Holmes 2 also held very well as it receded only 10% for a 448,287 take.

Meanwhile, all the buzz surrounding MI4 has sapped any interest domestic viewers had in taking in Jang Je-kyu's enormous WWII spectacle My Way as it has dropped 45% to 416,646 after a very disappointing opening weekend.  It has now banked 1,735,608 in 12 days, a shockingly low figure for a film that cost 30 billion won to produce.  It is about to open in Japan where it will need to do serious business if it hopes to stand a chance of recouping its production costs.

The Perfect Game dropped about a third to 238,191, also after an unimpressive start.  Competition has been fierce but perhaps audiences were given too many baseball pictures this year after Kang Woo-suk's GLove and Kim Sang-jin's underperforming Fighting Spirit, not to mention the Brad Pitt starring Moneyball which played very recently.

Spellbound was the lone bright spot for local films as it held well, dropping only 20% for 147,183.  It looks set to cross the 3 million mark, a milestone that My Way may not reach.

The rest of the top 10 was filled with Japanese animes and Hollywood kids fare while outside the top 10, Korean films barely registered.

Next week, Wonderful Radio opens but it has been getting poor reviews and I can't imagine it will be the film to unseat MI4 which seems destined for a fourth victory lap.  Business will pick up for local fare in a few weeks with the Lunar Day holiday weekend but until then, things look pretty grim.


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 (12/23-12/25, 2011)

Tom Cruise's MI4 Scales Over My Way for Surprise Top Spot

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Mission: Impossible 4 (us)	12/15/11	1,230,676	3,677,069
2	My Way	12/21/11	770,220	1,001,676
3	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (us)	12/21/11	517,421	659,039
4	Perfect Game	12/21/11	340,574	473,088
5	Spellbound	12/1/11	184,145	2,536,632
6	Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked (us)	12/15/11	162,953	383,500
7	Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Reshiram (jp)	12/22/11	130,231	142,727
8	Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Zekrom (jp)	12/22/11	113,229	124,173
9	The Adventures of Tintin (us)	12/7/11	39,870	773,043
10	Arthur Christmas (us)	11/25/11	31,682	614,441
-	Punch	10/20/11	856	5,315,682
-	My Barefoot Friend	12/15/11	437	1,653
-	SIU	11/24/11	271	1,118,060
-	Life Is Peachy	12/8/11	223	2,887
-	Dancing Cat	11/17/11	191	11,849
-	The Forgotten Bag	11/17/11	147	6,323
-	Too Many Villains	12/15/11	123	760

As expected, it was a huge weekend at the Korean box office this Christmas but the victor was a surprise.  After months of extraordinary performances from domestic films, the results for this frame are an unfortunate way to wrap up the year.  In total, admissions hit 3.56 million, a 10% gain over last year, one of the busiest weekends in Korean cinema history but sadly Korean films held only three of the top 10 spots and accounted for a below average 36.5% market share versus last year's 56.7%.

Korean audiences seemed starved for either blockbuster fare or children's movies over this past holiday weekend.  The bottom five of the top 10 were all movies aimed at children, including two Japanese animes.  I've been noticing the relatively poor performance of these kids' films over the past few weeks but now that I see the market share their combined efforts occupy I wonder whether foreign distributors were just a little careless in looking at the release calendar for Korea, ultimately too many films with a specific audience battled it out for a piece of the same pie.

However I have been thinking about the potential future of children's movies at the Korean box office.  Typically the country does not produce many of its own but that seems to be changing as audiences are becoming more receptive to the emerging talents of Korean-produced fare for children, especially in animation.  Kung Fu Panda 2 was directed by a Korean-American and this helped it sell over five million tickets.  A little later in the summer Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild became by far the most successful Korean animation ever made as it soared past the two million mark.  Perhaps next winter there will be some domestic children's movies beside all of Hollywood's seasonal offerings.

After last week's huge opening, Mission Impossible IV has actually increased 20% to 1,230,676.  The film has accumulated nearly four million admissions already and has done so against considerable competition.  Tom Cruise and company will likely end up very high on the yearly chart but how far will they go?

Kang Je-gyu's My Way, the highest budgeted Korean film of all time ($30 million) and probably the year's most anticipated film, had a sizable but very underwhelming debut as it took only 770,220, though it has sold just over a million tickets since opening.  Perhaps business will pick up in the coming weeks but this is an alarming start to the blockbuster war film's theater run.  Word of mouth has been mixed so far but awareness is huge for the pic.

The sequel to Sherlock Holmes had a solid debut with 517,42, slightly below the original's bow in 2009.  The Perfect Game had a decent 340,574 weekend but I expected a bit more after the strong previews.  However, there is some positive buzz surrounding the film so business could pick up, though it is a busy marketplace.  Spellbound dropped three spots but held onto to 60% of its business for a 184,145 weekend and with over 2.5 million admissions through this point, the three million mark is not out of the question.

As already mentioned the bottom five in the chart were all children's films:  Alvin and the Chipmunks (162,953); Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Reshiram (130,231); Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Zekrom (113,229); The Adventures of Tintin (39,870); and Arthur Christmas (31,682).

Outside the Top 10:  Punch shed most of its theaters and sold 856 tickets; My Barefoot Friend added 437 admission in its second week; SIU also lost the majority of its theaters and wound up with 271; Life Is Peachy dropped to 223; Dancing Cat added 191 to its impressive limited run; The Forgotten Bag sold 147 this week; and Too Many Villains, a film I'm tremendously excited to see, sadly sold a paltry 123 tickets in its second weekend, with only 760 in total.

Next Week:  All eyes will be on MI4 and My Way as we see how they perform in their third and second weeks respectively.


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.