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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2018.04.20 - 2018.04.22

Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War" arrives and rules...

Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War", one of the most anticipated films of the year, hit Korea last Wednesday across a massive 2,553 screens nationwide. The nineteenth film in the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which began with "Iron Man" almost exactly a decade ago, captured an unprecedented 95.11% of the sales over the last weekend of April.

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Despite some concerns over the official Korean subtitles, "Infinity War" attracted an incredible 3.1 million admissions ($27.7 million) during its opening weekend. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film's opening was South Korea's highest ever. Currently, the film is already the fourth highest grossing film of the year with a total of 5.2 million admissions, or $44 million; "1987: When the Day Comes" (5.2 million), "Black Panther" (5.3 million), and "Along With the Gods: The Two World" (5.8 million) are currently third, second and first respectively. Worldwide, "Avengers: Infinity War" enjoyed the largest opening of all time, surpassing last year's high-octane action flick, "The Fate of the Furious"'s $541 million.

All other films this week claimed a percent or less of the total sales, starting with Kim Ji-young-V's documentary, "Intention", in second. The sinking of MV Sewol in 2014 took the lives of 299 people (most of whom were secondary students) and sparked lasting public outrage and multiple investigations. In this film, Kim presents a scientific analysis of the tragedy in order to uncover the cause of the ferry's sinking. Released mid-April, "Intention" has so far attracted 476,207 admissions ($3.6 million), just 38,100 (1.05%) of which came from this past weekend.

"Rampage", starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and based on the video game series by Midway Games, fell two places to third after enjoying the past two weeks in pole position. Week three for director Brad Peyton's King Kong-inspired action outing saw its screen count slashed from 887 to 343. The 23,079 admissions ($184,304) "Rampage" claimed pushed its total tally in Korea now to 1.3 million ($11.1 million). Not far behind was the highest new local release: Kim Jin-muk's "True Fiction" (Ji Hyun-woo, Oh Man-seok, Lee Na-ra), his directing/screenwriting debut. The 103-minute mystery thriller earned 22,739 admissions (0.62%) from 429 screens around the country.

"Leo Da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa", an Italian animation by director Sergio Manfio, was released in its home country bacon January, but the film only recently arrived in The Land of the Morning Calm and found 16,527 admissions (0.43%) from just 150 screens. Similarly, Nitesh Tiwari's "Dangal" (2016), a popular biopic from India, only now came to Korean screens. The multi-awarding-winning film scored 12,575 admissions (0.34%) from 252 screens, followed by the John Krasinski's low-budget hit horror, "A Quiet Place" starring Emily Blunt alongside the director himself (who are wife and husband in real life). "A Quiet Place" was produced for between $17 ~ $21 million, but since its released in American early April, the horror has grossed an impressive $235.4 million worldwide. In Korea, and with the 11,880 stubs (0.34%) it scored here, Krasinski's horror has now earned $4.1 million.

The Norwegian 3D animation "In the forest of HuckyBucky" was the last new release to feature in this weekend's top ten and managed 7,735 admissions (0.19%) from 205 screens. Finally, two local films rounded out April's final weekend; Lee Byeong-heon-I's "What a Man Wants" (Lee Sung-min, Shin Ha-kyun, Song Ji-hyo and Lee El) and Bang Soo-in's debut "Stand By Me" (Lee Soon-jae and Jung Ji-hoon) earned 3,442 (0.09%) and 3,075 admissions (0.07%) respectively.

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2018.04.20 - 2018.04.22 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Rampage"   363 705 1 259 367
2 "Intention" (그날, 바다) 2018/04/12 108 961 385 431
3 "A Quiet Place "   108 761 460 519
4 "Ready Player One"   97 755 2 222 536
5 "Marionette" (나를 기억해) 2018/04/19 87 646 107 276
6 "What a Man Wants" (바람바람바람) 2018/04/05 71 118 1 159 410
7 "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" (곤지암) 2018/03/28 49 730 2 662 481
8 "The Jungle Bunch" (Les As de la Jungle)   28 462 31 087
9 "Stand By Me" (덕구) 2018/04/05 24 189 292 746
10 "Den of Thieves"   16 397 21 562
Korean movies only  
  "Mothers" (당신의 부탁) 2018/04/19 11 047 16 450
  "Spark : A Space Tail" (스파키)   4 530 32 786
  "Bungaeman and the Island of Mysteries" (번개맨과 신비의 섬) 2018/04/05 4 336 58 927
  "Be with You" (지금 만나러 갑니다) 2018/03/14 3 845 2 599 143
  "The Gateless Gate - Documentary" (무문관) 2018/04/19 3 787 5 814
  "Snatch-Up" (머니백) 2018/04/12 1 902 51 606
  "Seven Years of Night" (7년의 밤) 2018/03/28 1 152 526 887
  "Microhabitat" (소공녀) 2018/03/22 903 56 000
  "Mini Special Forces X" (미니특공대 X) 2018/03/22 885 99 449
  "Duck Town" (수성못) 2018/04/19 853 1 807

– Chris Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com)

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