[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2018.03.30 - 2018.04.01
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"Gonjiam" rises and outplays "Ready Player One" over Easter weekend...
Jeong Beom-sik's "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" enjoyed a successful limited release last weekend (fifth with 54,780 admissions) and has risen to the top of the chart following its official released last Wednesday. From 1,124 screens around the country, "Gonjiam", Jeong's second feature-length film as the sole director after "Casa Amor, Exclusive for Ladies" (2015), earned 39.62% of the sales, or 983,045 admissions ($7.6 million). The local horror/mystery managed to outplay Steven Spielberg's action-packed adaptation "Ready Player One".
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Based on the popular sci-fi novel of by Ernest Cline, "Ready Player One" (2011) is a nostalgic, geek-driven 80s adventure set in a dystopian future where the deceased creator of the world's foremost virtual reality simulator has hidden an "Easter egg" that will grant its finder total control over the digital world. The film was produced (excluding marketing costs) for $175 million; since its released in America and elsewhere this past week, "Ready Player One" has already grossed $181.2 million. In Korea, and from 1,078 screens, the film's first weekend out yielded $6.3 million from 741,759 admissions (33%), moving its total tally now to just under a million ($8 million).
Last weekend's number two, Lee Jang-hoon-I debut "Be with You" starring So Ji-sub and Son Ye-jin, fell to third with 253,331 admissions ($1.9 million), followed by director Choo Chang-min's fifth film, the revenge thriller "Seven Years of Night" (based on Jeong You-jeong's original story and stars Ryu Seung-ryong and Jang Dong-gun). (Choo's filmography includes "Masquerade" and "Late Blossom".) "Seven Years of Night" entered in fourth with 232,675 admissions (9.55%) from 812 screens and marked the watershed in the weekend's top ten.
70,409 admissions (2.82%) was all the new "Pacific Rim" film could muster during its second weekend out in Korea. "Uprising", the sequel to the popular 2013 original, entered in first last weekend with 39.76% of the action (655,193 admissions), but sharply fell out of favour over the Easter weekend. The film's total gross in Korea now sits $8.3 million, just over a million admissions. The Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama "Call Me by Your Name" by Luca Guadagnino and the local animation "Mini Special" swapped places: Guadagnino's drama rose one place to sixth with 25,896 admissions (1.1%), while Lee Yeong-joon's "Mini Special" slipped to seventh with 25,288 (0.93%).
The U.K. Biblical drama "Mary Magdalene" by Garth Davis entered the fray with 10,101 admissions (0.37%) from 111 screens, while Yim Soon-rye's "Little Forest" plummeted from fourth to ninth with just 8,715 admissions (0.33%) from 124 (down from 465). Since its release late February, "Little Forest" (Kim Tae-ri, Ryu Jun-yeol and Moon So-ri) has grossed $11.2 million from 1.4 million admissions. The final place went to Jeon Go-woon's drama "Microhabitat", her seventh film to date, with 7,695 admissions (0.32%) from just 88 screens.
Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2018.03.30 - 2018.04.01 (www.kobis.or.kr)
| # | Films | Release date | Week-end | Total |
| 1 | "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" (곤지암) | 2018/03/28 | 982 980 | 1 367 380 |
| 2 | "Ready Player One" | 741 571 | 986 543 | |
| 3 | "Be with You" (지금 만나러 갑니다) | 2018/03/14 | 253 312 | 2 321 004 |
| 4 | "Seven Years of Night" (7년의 밤) | 2018/03/28 | 232 659 | 418 153 |
| 5 | "Pacific Rim: Uprising" | 70 394 | 1 052 201 | |
| 6 | "Call Me by Your Name" | 25 896 | 125 151 | |
| 7 | "Mini Special Forces X" (미니특공대 X) | 2018/03/22 | 25 288 | 83 236 |
| 8 | "Mary Magdalene" | 10 109 | 15 968 | |
| 9 | "Little Forest" (리틀 포레스트) | 2018/02/28 | 8 708 | 1 496 076 |
| 10 | "Microhabitat" (소공녀) | 2018/03/22 | 7 695 | 42 297 |
| Korean movies only | ||||
| "What a Man Wants" (바람바람바람) | 2018/04/05 | 3 780 | 11 647 | |
| "The Vanished" (사라진 밤) | 2018/03/07 | 2 550 | 1 314 277 | |
| "Cheese in the Trap - Movie" (치즈인더트랩) | 2018/03/14 | 1 351 | 228 415 | |
| "A Field Day" (운동회) | 2018/03/22 | 671 | 4 364 | |
| "Psychokinesis" (염력) | 2018/01/31 | 519 | 989 038 | |
| "A Returned Man" (돌아온 사나이, Re-release, 1960) | 513 | 1 736 | ||
| "The Princess and the Matchmaker" (궁합) | 2018/02/28 | 241 | 1 339 258 | |
| "The Remnants" (공동정범) | 2018/01/25 | 221 | 11 371 | |
| "My Wife's Guests: Netorare" (내 아내의 초대남들:네토라레) | 2017/10/30 | 155 | 155 | |
| "Notebook from My Mother" (엄마의 공책) | 2018/03/15 | 130 | 6 841 | |
– Christopher Wheeler