[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.10.21 ~ 2016.10.23

"Lucky.Key" retains pole position after screen boost despite "Inferno"...

Lee Gye-byeok's drama "Luck.Key" gained a few more screens during its second week out and retained pole position by adding another 1.4 million admissions (66%) to its total tally. Since its release mid-October, "Luck.Key" has banked $4.3 million (4.3 million admissions) and so moves to number ten in the country's list of highest-grossing films of the year.

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Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's 2013 novel, "Inferno" (the sequel to "The Da Vinci Code"), arrived last Wednesday and settled in second over the weekend with 349,366 admissions (16%) from 753 screens. Last weekend's number two, Tim Burton's dark fantasy "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", found 109,941 admissions during its fourth week out in Korea; worldwide, Burton's latest has grossed just over $200 million (the film was produced for $110 million).

Fede Alvarez's horror "Don't Breathe" has been thrilling critics and filmgoers in America, and with the 45,141 admissions (2%) the film gained over the weekend, the film's total tally in Korea is now just under a million ($7.3 million). Not far behind that American horror entered the local drama "Queen of Walking" starring Shim Eun-kyung, Park Joo-hee, Kim Sae-byuk and Heo Jung-do. The film, director Baek Seung-hwa's third after "Turn It Up to Eleven 2 : Wild Days" (2012) and "Turn It Up to 11" (2009), was given 462 screens from which to pool and scored the attention of 42,163 filmgoers.

New Line Cinema's heartfelt drama "The Notebook" (2004) enjoyed a re-release and managed to grab 1.5% of the box office pie (32,172 admissions), followed by Sharon Maguire's "Bridget Jones's Baby" (Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey). Maguire's latest is the third in the "Bridget Jones" series after " Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" (2004), and since its release late September, the film has sold 803,940 admissions ($5.7 million) in Korea alone; worldwide, "Bridget Jones's Baby" has grossed over $157.9 million.

Choi Seungho's documentary "Spy Nation" fell just the one place to eighth with 15,166 admissions (0.7%), bringing its bottom line now to $631,803 (90,458 admissions), with the Barry Sonnenfeld's "Nine Lives" hot on its heels with 14,309 (0.6%). The second last weekend of October was rounded off with another re-release, this time for the magical world of Hogwarts. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2", the final instalment in the "Harry Potter" series of films, was released back in 2011 but recently made a brief comeback to Korean screens were 12,754 admissions (0.5%) came out to relive the final chapter in Potter's tale.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.10.21 - 2016.10.23 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Luck.Key" (럭키) 2016/10/13 1 461 945 4 341 426
2 "Inferno"   349 368 472 712
3 "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"   109 941 2 666 613
4 "Don't Breathe"   45 143 986 339
5 "Queen of Walking" (걷기왕) 2016/10/20 42 163 62 256
6 "The Notebook"   32 174 470 019
7 "Bridget Jones's Baby"   18 996 803 941
8 "Spy Nation" (자백) 2016/10/13 15 166 90 458
9 "Nine Lives"   14 309 19 219
10 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2"   12 754 4 416 035
Korean movies only  
  "The Bacchus Lady" (죽여주는 여자) 2016/10/06 6 591 101 610
  "Asura: The City of Madness" (아수라) 2016/09/28 1 702 2 590 343
  "A Quiet Dream" (춘몽) 2016/10/13 1 587 11 770
  "The Net" (그물) 2016/10/06 465 55 797
  "Love Me Once Again Despite Hatred '80" (미워도 다시 한번 '80, 1980) - Re-release   293 899
  "Blossom" (흔들리는 물결) 2016/10/27 210 628
  "Moonlight Palace" (달빛궁궐) 2016/09/07 208 152 183
  "Moo-hyun, the Story of Two Cities" (무현, 두 도시 이야기) 2016/10/26 180 180
  "The Rule of Violence" (폭력의 법칙: 나쁜 피 두 번째 이야기) 2016/10/20 151 542
  "Dear Grandma" (할머니의 먼 집) 2016/09/29 139 3 109

 - Chris Wheeler