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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.06.20 ~ 2014.06.22

Local delights struggle as Cruise's latest enjoys a third week at the top…

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Tom Cruise's latest sci-fi phenomenon "Edge of Tomorrow" continued its reign as Korean film of choice. The film added another 573K (36%) to bring its total tally now up to 3.9M, and now threatens to overtake "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" as the sixth highest grossing film of the year. Running close to 200K behind Liman's adaptation came Kim Seong-hun's action drama "A Hard Day" starring Lee Sun-kyun. "A Hard Day", one of only two Korean films to make the cut this week, attracted 372K filmgoers (23% of the box office pie) to secure its fourth straight week at number two.

Last week the Franco-German fantasy film "Beauty and the Beast" was released in Korea and, with the help of 387 screens around the country, secured third place with a little over 165K admissions (9.7%). That meant that last weekend's bronze winner, Park Sang-joon's "For The Emperor", was forced back into fourth with its 107K (6.7%). "A Hard Day" and "For The Emperor" were the only local flicks to secure a top ten finish, with "No Tears for the Dead", "Man on High Heels", and "Gyeongju" all being relegated from the top ten having occupied sixth, seventh, and eight last weekend.

 Perhaps the biggest surprize in this week's top tier films came in form of Felix Herngren's adaptation "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" (2013), a Swedish film based on the bestselling debut novel by Jonas Jonasson. The story follows a againg dynamite expert on his 100th birthday that sneaks away from his retirement home. The film grabbed the attention of some 82K moviegoers (4.9%) and was allocated 299 screens from which to pool from. Follow Herngren's intriguing drama came "Grace of Monaco", American-French biopic about the life and times of Grace Patricia Kelly. The film, directed by Olivier Dahan, was support by over 74K (4.4%) and was followed by one of biggest blockbusters of the year thus far: "X-Men: Days of Future Past".

Marvel's mutants have been in Korea's top ten now for six weeks and have amassed over 4.2M admissions ($33.7M); a healthy haul that sees it overtake "Captain America" and its 4.1M stubs as the fourth highest grossing film of the year. "X-Men" is now on its way out, but still managed to score 65K (4%) to take seventh place (down from last weekend's fourth). The twisted fairy tale "Maleficent" recently became Angelina Jolie's most successful film to date, but Korean audiences have been less enthralled with Jolie's fantasy flick. The film slipped from fifth to eighth over the weekend and claimed only 56K (3.3%) which moved the film's total tally now in Korea to 1.3M ($10.4M).

Lastly, the first instalment of Lars Von Trier's sex-crazed "Nymphomaniac" came onto the scene and seduced 16K Koreans into theatres, while the critically acclaimed drama "Her" held down tenth place with 13K of its own.

 

What's coming out next week in Korea? [HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...

Last weekend's report: [HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.06.13 ~ 2014.06.15

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.06.20 - 2014.06.22 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Edge of Tomorrow"   573 950 3 920 125
2 "A Hard Day" (무덤까지 간다) 2014/05/29 371 620 2 696 649
3 "Beauty and the Beast"   165 766 208 970
4 "For The Emperor" (황제를 위하여) 2014/06/12 107 331 523 266
5 "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" (Hundraĺringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann)   82 584 111 791
6 "Grace of Monaco"   74 690 111 294
7 "X-Men: Days of Future Past"   65 967 4 288 549
8 "Maleficent"   56 909 1 378 347
9 "Nymphomaniac: Vol. I"   16 493 27 499
10 "Her"   13 981 274 000
Korean movies only  
  "Man on High Heels" (하이힐) 2014/06/04 9 747 334 778
  "Gyeongju" (경주) 2014/06/12 5 630 54 689
  "No Tears for the Dead" (우는 남자) 2014/06/04 5 540 597 865
  "The Fatal Encounter" (역린) 2014/04/30 3 185 3 848 898
  "Man on High Heels" (Director's Cut)   1 209 1 510
  "You Are My Vampire" (그댄 나의 뱀파이어) 2014/06/12 799 2 163
  "The Actress Spy" (여배우 공작단) 2014/06/19 711 1 584
  "Obsessed" (인간중독) 2014/05/14 414 1 440 200
  "The Stone" (스톤) 2014/06/12 380 12 375
  "Lost Flower: Eo Woo-dong" (주인없는 꽃: 어우동) 2014/10 183 276

 

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com@KoreaOnTheCouch)

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