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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.05.13 ~ 2016.05.15

Na Hong-jin's new thriller trumps Marvel's "Civil War"...

Na Hong-jin's much-anticipated new mystery thriller, "The Wailing" (starring Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, and Chun Woo-hee), arrived in theaters last Thursday and over the weekend rose to the top of the chart by dislodging "Captain America: Civil War" and so denied Marvel's latest a third straight week in pole position. Na Hong-jin's two previous films ("The Yellow Sea" and "The Chaser") received critical acclaim when they came out in 2010 and 2008 respectively, and his third film enjoyed a promising start by amassing 1.8 million admissions (64%) across 1,481 screens.

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Last weekend's number one, Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War", was, as a resulted, forced to settled in second with its 537.6 thousand admissions (19.2%), bringing its total tally now to an impressive 8.2 million ($58.6 million). Around the world, "Civil War" has continued to please superhero fans and is fast approaching a billion dollars (currently $940 million). With 300 thousand fewer admissions came Jo Sung-hee's "Phantom Detective" starring Lee Je-hoon, Kim Sung-kyun and Park Geun-hyung. Since its released earlier this month, "Phantom Detective" has amassed 1.2 million admissions ($8.3 million).

Fourth place was claimed by another new entry in the form of the first half of the final chapter in the popular "Divergent" science fiction series from America: "The Divergent Series: Allegiant". From the 392 screens allocated to Robert Schwentke's film, "Allegiant" captured 2% of the box office pie with 59.7 thousand admissions. The South Korean animation "Theatrical Cut - Hello Jadu" by Son Seok-woo fell two places to find itself in fifth place with 43 thousand stubs, and sixth place went to "My New Sassy Girl" by Jo Geun-sik: the sequel to the iconic 2001 comedy by Kwak Jae-yong, "My Sassy Girl". Jo Geun-sik's film (which stars Cha Tae-hyun and Victoria) garnered the support of 38.5 thousand filmgoers (1.3%) across 385 screens.

The Taiwanese film "Our Times" also arrived last Thursday. It was allocated 128 screens and from them ended its first weekend with 26.5 thousand admissions in the bag. Disney's "Zootopia", remember it's been out in Korea since mid-February, had more screens that "Our Times", but its age is showing as it only managed to add an additional 19.9 thousand stubs. This brings its total admissions in Korea now to a cool 4.6 million, or $31.4 million.

The top ten for the third weekend of May was rounded out by the British documentary "Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet" and China's "The Magic Brush". Last weekend, the BBC's dino-documentary occupied sixth with 47.5 thousand admissions sold; this weekend, however, saw it slump to ninth place with only 13.3 thousand (0.4%), bringing its bottom line in Korea to 106 thousand. Lastly, The Chinese film "The Magic Brush" found itself at the bottom of the top ten with 13.1 thousand, this after having occupied fourth place last weekend where it managed to capture almost 70 thousand admissions. Since its release in Korea at the beginning of May, "The Magic Brush" has banked just over a million dollars in Korea alone.

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.05.13 - 2016.05.15 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Wailing" (곡성) 2016/05/12 1 829 731 2 315 303
2 "Captain America: Civil War"   527 647 8 235 666
3 "Phantom Detective" (탐정 홍길동: 사라진 마을) 2016/05/04 226 183 1 204 136
4 "The Divergent Series: Allegiant"   59 703 76 047
5 "Theatrical Cut - Hello Jadu" (극장판 안녕 자두야) 2016/05/04 43 200 263 613
6 "My New Sassy Girl" (엽기적인 그녀 2) 2016/05/12 38 589 56 189
7 "Our Times" (我的少女時代)   36 561 46 550
8 "Zootopia"   19 939 4 694 852
9 "Walking With Dinosaurs : Prehistoric Planet"   13 345 106 931
10 "The Magic Brush"   13 106 166 556
Korean movies only  
  "DINO X Adventure Squad" (다이노X 탐험대) 2016/05/04 3 893 81 359
  "Overman" (초인) 2016/05/05 908 3 533
  "4th Place" (4등) 2016/04/13 862 34 112
  "The Last Ride" (위대한 소원) 2016/04/21 757 307 302
  "Single Determination" (일사각오) 2016/03/17 588 90 670
  "Spirits' Homecoming" (귀향) 2016/02/24 409 3 585 633
  "Time Renegades" (시간이탈자) 2016/04/13 378 1 201 762
  "Love, Lies" (해어화) 2016/04/13 342 482 012
  "Detective Agency - Love and War" (탐정사무소 - 사랑과 전쟁) 2016/05/13 315 315
  "Waiting For The Snow" (눈이라도 내렸으면) 2016/05/12 286 321

- Chris Wheeler

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