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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.02.28 ~ 2014.03.02

"Pompeii" burns out as Neeson's latest soars…

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Paul W. S. Anderson's disaster epic "Pompeii" failed to retain the top spot this past weekend as the mystery thriller "Non-Stop" flew into first without contention. "Non-stop" managed to capture 33.7% of the sales (704K admissions) as it open its account with more than double that of its nearest rival. The film, which stars Liam Neeson alongside Julianne Moore, Scoot MacNairy, and Michelle Dockery, was given 582 screens in week one and secured pole position with plenty of elbow room. The only other new features to make it into the weekend's top films were 20th Century Fox's "The Monument Man" and the Oscar-winning drama "12 Years a Slave".

Last weekend "Pompeii" dislodged "Frozen" at the top to challenge the Oscar-winning animation's impressive and record-breaking run. However that glory didn't last long as the disaster flick was bumped promptly down to second with just 299,792 admissions (14.2%), a modest haul but one representative of very quiet week that still managed to push Anderson's epic past the million-admissions mark. That fire and brimstone was closely tailed by Hwang Dong-hyuk's "Miss Granny" in third, the same position Hwang's film held last weeked, although the 276,513 tickets (12.8%) it scored here was about a hundred thousand light of last week's effort. Hwang's comedy drama has performed extremely well thus far, amassing 8.1 million admissions ($55.4M) since its release late in January.

The 86th Academy Awards were held last night and the ceremony awarded Disney's "Frozen" with its Best Animation award. "Frozen" came out halfway in January and has since become the highest grossing animation in Korea with more than 10 million admissions ($75.1M) to its name. Kim Kwang-sik-I's drama "Tabloid Truth" entered the chart in second last weekend with over 400K admissions, however that initial excitement failed to extend into week two as the film slumped to fourth with just 229,275 (10.9%). Still, that small take was enough to push "Tabloid Truth" over the million admissions mark ($7.1M).

The big winner at last night's Oscar ceremony was Steve McQueen's historical drama "12 Years a Slave" starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Micheal Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Paul Dano. The film, which is based on the 1853 memoirs of the same name by Solomon Northup, won Best Picture as well as Best Support Actress (Lupita Nyong'o) and Best Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley). "12 Years a Slave" opened in Korea in sixth with the support 94,215 eager filmgoers (4.3%), and was followed by the American-German war film "The Monuments Men" (43,772 – 2%) in seventh. Kwon Chil-in's "Venus Talk" (40,735 – 2%) and Kim Jin-moo's "Apostle" (33,960 – 1.5%) occupied eighth and ninth respectfully, while the sci-fi action remake "RoboCop" settled in tenth with 25,977 (1.1%).

 

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] 2014.02.21 ~ 2014.02.23

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.02.28 - 2014.03.02 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Non-Stop"   704 968 824 066
2 "Pompeii"   299 792 1 128 429
3 "Miss Granny" (수상한 그녀) 2014/01/23 276 513 8 195 518
4 "Tabloid Truth" (찌라시 : 위험한 소문) 2014/02/20 229 275 1 029 699
5 "Frozen"   226 947 10 043 500
6 "'12 Years a Slave'"   94 215 122 012
7 "The Monuments Men"   43 772 55 122
8 "Venus Talk" (관능의 법칙) 2014/02/13 40 735 722 184
9 "Apostle" (신이 보낸 사람) 2014/02/13 33 960 356 533
10 "RoboCop"   25 977 974 434
Korean movies only  
  "Another Family" (또 하나의 약속) 2014/02/06 15 554 479 869
  "The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow" (우리별 일호와 얼룩소) 2014/02/20 5 837 42 298
  "Thread of Lies" (우아한 거짓말) 2014/03/13 1 578 5 596
  "The Nut Job (넛잡: 땅콩 도둑들)"   1 074 475 926
  "The Actress Is Too Much" (여배우는 너무해) 2014/02/27 855 2 042
  "The Attorney" (변호인) 2013/12/19 475 11 372 092
  "When A Man Loves A Woman" (남자가 사랑할 때) 2014/01/22 417 1 972 872
  "Intruders" (조난자들) 2014/03/06 381 1 788
  "Mansin: Ten Thousand Spirits" (만신) 2014/03/06 293 2 822
  "Lebanon Emotion" (레바논 감정) 2014/02/27 278 888

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

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