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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.08.08 ~ 2014.08.10

Kim's "Admiral" surpasses 10M in record time…

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Kim Han-min's cinematic celebration of the legendary Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin continued its record-breaking form as it powered past the 10 million admissions mark with ease. Over this past weekend Kim's period epic claimed over 2.5M stubs (58.8%) over 1,335 screens to become the fastest Korean film to reach that milestone, and now stands as the tenth highest grossing Korean film of all time. The film depicts Yi Sun-sin's famous victory at the Battle of Myeongnyang where, against all odds, he defeated the Japanese navy on the Myeongnyang Strait by forcing the Japanese fleet into the narrow pass and made strategic use of the straights strong and shifting currents. "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" now has a total tally of 10.7M admissions ($81.1M); an incredible achievement considering the film was only released on the 30th of last month.

2014 has already seen a host of period pieces come and go, the latest of which was released last week in the form of Lee Seok-hoon's adventure flick "Pirates". The film stars Kim Nam-gil, Son Ye-jin, Yoo Hae-jin, Lee Kyung-young, Oh Dal-soo in a Chosun-style chase to recover a royal seal from the belly of a whale. Despite the record-breaking dominance of "The Admiral", "Pirates" still managed to claimed 1.2M (25.6%) stubs over 823 screens to secure second place and is fast approaching 2M.

From here the support dropped significantly as "How To Train Your Dragon 2", the sequel to DreamWorks' popular 2010 film, held down third place with just 229K (4.8%), while Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" walked away with 178K (4.3%) and fourth place. Marvel's latest has already grossed over $313M worldwide, but Korean audiences have been entranced by a string of historical hits that have been dictating terms since late July. Amidst this late-summer surge, the latest in the "Detective Conan" series managed to find footing in fifth as it claimed over 145K during its first weekend out. The Japanese animation opened to just 297 screens but still found enough support to feature in this trying top ten.

In sixth place, and down three places, came Yoon Jong-bin's period piece "KUNDO" starring Ha Jung-woo, Gang Dong-won, Lee Sung-min, Cho Jin-woong, and Ma Dong-seok. This Robin Hood-style event added another 59K (1.2%) to bring it total tally to 4.7M ($35.7M). Yoon's action effort is currently the fourth highest grossing Korean film of year behind "The Attorney" (5.6M), "Miss Granny" (8.6M), and Kim's "Admiral" (10.7M).

Another legendary figure also found its way onto the charts in the form of "Hercules" (45K-0.9%), and was followed by the French comedy "Attila Marcel" (15K) by director Sylvain Chomet. Closing out the weekend came Bang Hyeong-woo's animated adventure "T-pang Rescue" which 10K (over just 89 screens), and the weekend's top ten was rounded out by the American animation "Free Birds" with 9K admissions.

 

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] 2014.08.01 ~ 2014.08.03

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.08.08 - 2014.08.10 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" (명량-회오리바다) 2014/07/30 2 809 312 10 778 980
2 "Pirates" (해적: 바다로 간 산적) 2014/08/06 1 242 251 1 804 766
3 "How To Train Your Dragon 2"   229 799 2 689 550
4 "Guardians of the Galaxy"   178 273 1 033 960
5 "Detective Conan : Dimensional Sniper (名探偵コナン 異次元の狙撃手, スナイパー)"   145 559 209 218
6 "KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" (군도:민란의 시대) 2014/07/23 59 850 4 738 616
7 "Hercules"   45 112 68 808
8 "Attila Marcel"   15 438 78 487
9 "T-pang Rescue" (극장판 뛰뛰빵빵 구조대 미션 : 둥둥이를 구하라!) 2014/08/07 10 034 14 921
10 "Free Birds"   9 386 103 286
Korean movies only  
  "The Cardinal" (그 사람 추기경) 2014/08/07 1 941 7 250
  "The King of Jokgu" (족구왕) 2014/08/21 655 655
  "Super Virgin" (숫호구) 2014/08/07 506 1 283
  "The Divine Move" (신의 한수) 2014/07/03 328 3 565 806
  "The Atom Bomb Of Love (1977, 사랑의 원자탄) - Re-release"   296 1 512
  "Tunnel 3D" (터널 3D) 2014/08/20 226 1 128
  "Our Family" (우리가족) 2014/07/24 192 660
  "Santa Barbara" (산타바바라) 2014/07/17 150 16 306
  "Non-Fiction Diary" (논픽션 다이어리) 2014/07/17 135 6 007

 

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

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