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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2013.06.14 - 2013.06.16

Jang Cheol-soo's second directorial effort "Secretly and Greatly" managed to just outplay "The Man of Steel" for another impressive weekend at the top. The action comedy added a little over a million admissions to bring its total count to 5.2M. That makes it the third highest grossing Korean film of the year behind "The Berlin File" (7.1M) and "Miracle in Cell No. 7" (12.8M). Starring Kim Soo-hyun as the sleeper cell agent Ryoo-hwan, "Secretly and Greatly" tells the tale of three North Korean spies adapting to South Korean life, but things get a little interesting when word comes down that they are to committed suicide. Jang Cheol-soo was the man behind the 2009 psychological thriller "Bedevilled" and has worked on a number of Kim Ki-duk's films since 2002. "Secretly and Greatly" marks an interesting turn of genre for this exciting Korean director and has been attracting a lot of attention in Korea since its release earlier in the month.

It was a close race at the top, one that almost placed "Man of Steel" at the top. Zack Snyder is the man behind this latest Superman flick, and the DC franchise pulled in a little over 1M admissions over 998 screens around the country over the weekend. Although "Secretly and Greatly" held the most admissions, it was actually "Man of Steel" that came out on tops if strictly considering their total gross. Ticket sales are one thing, but special screenings (3D or otherwise) place DC's hero at the top of the cash pile. "Star Trek Into Darkness" fell one place with 97,185 stubs to its name. The film held second last week with 284,114, but has been heavily over-shadowed and its ticket count forced into a slow grind. "Star Trek" now moved onto 1.4M admissions since its release late last month. At number four is the Korean omnibus feature "Horror Stories 2" which contains four short stories from different directors. Like "Man of Steel" it too fell one place and saw its admissions count slashed to a soft 62,485. The previous film, "Horror Stories", claimed just 329,800 last year, a benchmark that has already been passed as its 'sequel' now closes in on 500,000 admissions.

The animations film "The Croods" is in its sixth week at number five and during this past weekend it added 44,976 to bring its total admissions up to 870,163. Also slowing its role was the sixth film in the popular "Fast and Furious" series. "The Fast and the Furious 6" entered into the chart at number one in May, opening with a hearty 625,056 to take the crown from "Iron Man 3". This, its forth week, saw the hard-hitting action flick advance to 1.7M total admissions. The American action-thriller "Olympus Has Fallen" followed in seventh with just 11, 290, slipping just the one place from last weekend. The film was made on $70M, and has since made almost double the in ticket sales internationally.

Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight" returns to the top ten after having been eject from the list last week. The film is a sequel to the 1995 film "Before Sunrise" and to "Before Sunset" (2004). This romantic drama claimed just 9,014 admissions which shifted its total ticket count up to 163,436. Close behind it was "The Great Gatsby" with 8,126 of its own. The film has amassed 1.4M admissions in Korea, a relatively small following considering the film has grossed more the $300M internationally. Lastly, the Korean box office would not be complete without a Japanese animation, and this week it was "Nazuma Eleven Go vs. Little Battlers Experience W: The Movie" which rounded out the weekend's top films. The film held the same position last weekend, except this time it did so with a third of the support.

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2013.06.14 - 2013.06.16 (www.kobis.or.kr)

 

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Secretly and Greatly" (은밀하게 위대하게) 2013/06/05 1 053 989 5 267 937
2 "Man of Steel"   1 025 796 1 205 692
3 "Star Trek Into Darkness"   97 185 1 467 272
4 "Horror Stories 2" (무서운 이야기2) 2013/06/05 62 485 465 683
5 "The Croods"   44 976 870 163
6 "The Fast and the Furious 6"   21 323 1 774 069
7 "Olympus Has Fallen"   11 290 161 751
8 "Before Midnight"   9 014 163 436
9 "The Great Gatsby"   8 126 1 418 941
10 "Nazuma Eleven Go vs. Little Battlers Experience W: The Movie" (劇場版イナズマイレブンGO vs ダンボール戦機W)   5 465 36 269
Korean movies only  
  "Montage" (몽타주) 2013/05/16 5 142 2 089 913
  "Mai Ratima" (마이 라띠마) 2013/06/06 1 476 5 781
  "On the Road" (길위에서) 2013/05/23 1 411 12 202
  "Miss Cherry's Love Puzzle" (앵두야, 연애하자) 2013/06/06 553 1 364
  "A Wedding Invitation" (이별계약, 分手合約)   531 531
  "Forest Dancing" (춤추는 숲) 2013/05/23 380 7 016
  "Born to Sing" (전국노래자랑) 2013/05/01 281 977 279
  "Rockin' on Heaven's Door" (뜨거운 안녕) 2013/05/30 256 46 310
  "Tears of the Amazon" (아마존의 눈물) 2010/03/25 166 104 367
  "Sleepless Night" (잠 못 드는 밤) 2013/05/30 161 1 957

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