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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.01.15 ~ 2016.01.17

"Star Wars" disappears, "The Himalayas" begins its descent, and "The Revenant" rises...

The Oscar-nominated "The Revenant" (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) entered at the top of the Korean box office this past weekend. This gritty and intense thriller arrived last Thursday and topped the weekend chart with 694 thousand admissions (35.2%) from across 966 screens. Critics and fans alike have praised director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's efforts, and the Academy recently confirmed its excellence by nominating it in twelve categories, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.

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The success of "The Revenant" meant that last weekend's number one, Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur", lost pole position; in fact, it slipped to third place over the weekend having captured just 12.4% of the box office pie (270 thousand admissions). Since its release on the 7th, "The Good Dinosaur" has managed to bank $5.9 million in Korea alone, and worldwide this prehistoric coming-of-age adventure has made over $266 million.

Second place went to a local romantic comedy by Jo Kyoo-jang ("A Camel Doesn't Leave Desert"). "Mood of the Day" stars Moon Chae-won and Yoo Yeon-seok as two 'strangers on a train' who connect in unusual circumstances. From its allocated 584 screens, the film attracted 279.8 thousand (14%), only narrowly outplaying "The Good Dinosaur" for second place.

Lee Seok-hoon's mountain melodrama "The Himalayas" rocked the box office late last year by convincingly beating the latest "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Lee's blockbuster came out mid-November and has since accumulated an impressive admissions tally of over 7.4 million ($47.8 million), 189 thousand of which came from this past weekend alone. Not far behind in fifth fell the re-release "Inside Men: The Original" by Woo Min-ho. This newer version contains extended footage and despite the short time between releases, "The Original" still managed to make an additional $12.4 million (1.8 million admissions).

The American horror comedy "Goosebumps" (based on the works of R.L. Stine) arrived last Thursday and banked just over a million dollars during its first weekend out (182 thousand - 6.8%). It also marks the watershed in this week's box office as the figures fell considerably from here on out.

The Japanese animation "Crayon Shin-Chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack!" retained its position in seventh place from last weekend, however, it did so with less than half the admissions. Last weekend it earned the attention of 97 thousand (4.1%) across 396 screens, whereas week two for Masakazu Hashimoto's piece saw those figures fall to 44.8 thousand (2%) from 277 screens. The film has so far made $1.2 million in Korea alone.

Ericson Core's "Point Break" fell from sixth to eight with just 30 thousand admissions going its way (1.5%), followed by the BBC Christmas special of "Sherlock: The Abominable Bride" with 28.5 thousand (1.5%), and the second weekend of the year was rounded out by Lee Yoon-jeong-II's debut drama, "Remember You - Movie" starring Jung Woo-sung and Kim Ha-neul. The film, Lee's first feature film, which she also wrote, entered as high as fourth last weekend by capturing 10.7% of the box office pie, but week two was not as kind as it slumped to tenth with just 22.5 thousand admissions (1.1%).

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.01.15 - 2016.01.17 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Revenant"   694 587 821 213
2 "Mood of the Day" (그날의 분위기) 2016/01/14 279 877 354 927
3 "The Good Dinosaur"   270 283 983 043
4 "The Himalayas" (히말라야) 2015/12/16 189 380 7 469 671
5 "Inside Men: The Original" (내부자들: 디 오리지널) 2015/12/31 158 296 1 851 437
6 "Goosebumps"   144 021 182 411
7 "Crayon Shin-chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack!" (クレヨンしんちゃん オラの引越し物語 サボテン大襲撃)   44 822 197 640
8 "Point Break"   30 113 278 905
9 "Sherlock"   29 549 1 259 963
10 "Remember You - Movie" (나를 잊지 말아요) 2016/01/07 22 575 414 102
Korean movies only  
  "The Joseon Magician" (조선마술사) 2015/12/30 2 812 626 397
  "A Melody to Remember" (오빠 생각) 2016/01/21 2 790 19 551
  "The Tiger: An Old Hunter's Tale" (대호) 2015/12/16 1 882 1 760 565
  "Pororo, Cyberspace Adventure" (뽀로로 극장판 컴퓨터 왕국 대모험) 2015/12/10 1 670 440 660
  "Like a French Film" (프랑스 영화처럼) 2016/01/14 1 163 2 764
  "Chasing" (잡아야 산다) 2016/01/07 1 033 53 933
  "Tayo the Little Bus Movie: Rescue My Friend Ace" (극장판 꼬마버스 타요의 에이스 구출작전) 2016/01/21 798 798
  "Inside Men" (내부자들) 2015/11/19 637 7 070 772
  "Cruel State" (나쁜 나라) 2015/12/03 411 18 818
  "When Bucketwheet Flowers Blossom" (메밀꽃 필 무렵, 1967) - Re-release   353 1 078

- C.J. Wheeler (@Woolgatherist )

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