Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.10.03 ~ 2014.10.05

Fresh blood mixes things up at the top…

Advertisement

There was a lot of activity over the weekend as fresh features disrupted what was starting to look like a very tranquil top ten. "Whistle Blower", "Slow Video", "Scarlet Innocence", and Jungle Shuffle" were all released last Thursday and captured close to 60% of the total ticket sales (58.3%) between them. Of the four, it was Yim Soon-rye's "Whistle Blower" and Kim Yeong-tak's "Slow Video" that made the biggest waves as they slotted into first and second respectfully. That meant that "The Maze Runner" and "Tazza: The Hidden Card" descended the chart to make way, but some fell harder than others.

It was a close finish at the top as both Yim Soon-rye's "Whistle Blower" and Kim Yeong-tak's "Slow Video" claimed over 500K, but ultimately it was Lim's drama that pulled through to sit atop this week's chart. "Whistle Blower" (formerly known as "The Messenger") stars Park Hae-il and Yoo Yeon-seok in a film that tells the story of Dr Lee and the false claims he made regarding his stem-cell research. The Lim's film did have a handful more screens that Kim's latest (with 661 playing 618), and even the backing of 20th Century Fox couldn't bump Kim's sophomore flick over the line. "Slow Video" claimed 546K stubs (32%) for second place, and he'll will be hoping that it challenges the 3M his debut, "Hello Ghost", made back in 2010.

For two weeks now Wes Ball's sci-fi action film "The Maze Runner" has been the country's film of choice, and during its run through Korea it's manged to amass $15.9M (2.2M admissions). Elsewhere, however, is another story. "The Maze Runner" has already made over $192M worldwide and we've already heard talks of a sequel. Following that two-step slip came a new foreign entry: "Annabelle", an American supernatural horror with ties to James Wan's 2013 film "The Conjuring". "Annabelle" managed 327K admissions (13.8%) over 464 screens in week one, and then in fifth place came Yim Pil-sung's romantic indulgence "Scarlet Innocence" starring Jung Woo-sung and Esom with 207K (9.1%). 

Last weekend "Begin Again" enjoyed second place with the 267K it attracted. Week three for this American musical drama, however, was less stellar. With the influx of fresh blood into the chart Carney's drama was muscled all the way to sixth (151K - 6.6%), but its run in Korea has quietly resulted in cool $23.7M (3.2M admissions). The Japanese animation "Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters..." occupied seventh with 97K (3.7%), followed by "Jungle Shuffle" (47K – 1.8%) and "Tazza: The Hidden Card" (19K – 0.8%). "Tazza: The Hidden Card" was third last week, but it won't fret too much over its recent fall from favour because its total ticket tally now sits at almost 4M ($29.9M). That makes "Tazza: The Hidden Card" the sixth highest grossing Korea film of the year after "KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" (4.7M) and "The Attorney" (5.6M). Lastly, the weekend's top ten was rounded out by the Chinese animation "Yugo & Lala" with 14K supporters.

 

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] 2014.09.26 ~ 2014.09.28

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.10.03 - 2014.10.05 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Whistle Blower" (제보자) 2014/10/02 563 539 692 549
2 "Slow Video" (슬로우 비디오) 2014/10/02 546 875 657 495
3 "The Maze Runner"   333 990 2 213 035
4 "Annabelle"   327 704 413 843
5 "Scarlet Innocence" (마담 뺑덕) 2014/10/02 207 571 283 167
6 "Begin Again"   151 986 3 214 073
7 "Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters: The Great Dinosaur Battle! Farewell Our Eternal Friends" (獣電戦隊キョウリュウジャーVSゴーバスターズ 恐竜大決戦!さらば永遠の友よ)   97 820 104 749
8 "Jungle Shuffle" (정글히어로) 2014/10/02 47 968 50 866
9 "Tazza: The Hidden Card" (타짜-신의 손) 2014/09/03 19 144 3 927 025
10 "Yugo & Lala" (神秘世界歷險記2)   14 927 21 406
Korean movies only  
  "Pirates" (해적: 바다로 간 산적) 2014/08/06 9 365 8 625 183
  "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" (명량-회오리바다) 2014/07/30 1 985 17 604 969
  "One for All, All for One" (60만번의 트라이) 2014/09/18 906 17 507
  "The King of Jokgu" (족구왕) 2014/08/21 881 42 266
  "Hill of Freedom" (자유의 언덕) 2014/09/04 857 35 450
  "My Brilliant Life" (두근두근 내 인생) 2014/09/03 401 1 623 807
  "The Road Called Life" (메밀꽃, 운수 좋은 날, 그리고 봄봄) 2014/08/21 334 28 428
  "Splendid but Sad Days" (순천) 2014/09/25 268 3 009
  "Life of Woman" (여자의 일생, 1968) - Re-release   237 7 236
  "A Pharisee" (바리새인) 2014/09/25 138 1 386

 

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.comKoreaOnTheCouch)

❎ Try Ad-free