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[HanCinema's Film Review] Korean Weekend Box Office 2012.11.02 ~ 2012.11.04

HanCinema's Korean Box Office Review 

(2012.11.02 ~ 2012.11.04)

This last weekend saw Jo Sung-hee's supernatural love story "A Werewolf Boy" nudge 007 for the win. The film is off to a promising start as it claimed 1,030,285 (48.7%) admissions in its opening weekend. That's more than double the efforts of last week's number one "Skyfall" which only managed 458,998 (22.8%). Jo Sung-hee was also responsible for the 2012 drama "End of Animal" and contributed to 2009 omnibus film "Nice Shorts". "A Werewolf Boy" stars Song Joong-ki ("Penny Pinchers") and Park Bo-young ("Don't Click") in a fantasy drama that seems to be hitting all the right notes with the Korean public, so far.

 

 

"Skyfall" came onto the Korean circuit last week and was close to crossing the million admissions mark in the process (870,832 in fact); however Hung-hee's latest pushed 007 to second with just 458,998, moving its total admissions count now to 1,694,347. Generally the admission counts for this first weekend of November were quite low, with the top five films just scrapping around two million admissions between them. That allowed "Masquerade" to enjoy third place as it nonchalantly added 272,725 to bring its total to a remarkable 11,418,829. "Masquerade" may not have the legs to surpass the recording-breaking "The Thieves" (which earned 12,982,412) but its eight weeks in the top three have almost made me believe that it has becoming a permanent fixture of the Korean top ten. Following Choo Chang-min's big money maker was last week's number three "Suspect X" by Pang Eun-jin. "Suspect X" has 1,462,106 admissions to its name and is still being shown on 316 screens around the country.

 

 

Ben Affleck's "Argo" is a dramatization of the extraction of a number of US diplomatic personnel out of Iran in 1980. The film was made on a budget of $44M and and thus far earned around $60 in the U.S alone. The Korean public greeted it with 56,647 (2.7%) in its opening weekend with 238 screenings. At number six is a new Korean film by director Jung Byung-gil ("Action Boys" and "Young Mob Protest's Song"). "Confession of Murder" is an action thriller starring Park Si-hoo and Jung Jae-young. In "Confessions of Murder", new information comes to light after the statute of limitation expires on a case and raises troubling new questions on the case. The number seven spot was help by the popular animation film "Brave". "Brave" has not done particularly well in Korea as this week saw it add just 23,145 admissions to its new total of 1,211,560 since its release late last month.

Moving on to the bottom of the list now and there we find Yook Sang-hyo comedy "Iron Dae-oh: The Nation's Iron Bag!" which is down from last week's number four. Sang-hyeon's film earned just 21,287 and had it's number of screenings severely cut from last week's 358 to just 195. "The Peach Tree" is Koo Hye-sun's second film that made its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in October last year. Koo Hye-sun's first film "Magic - 2010" was not a commercial success, so Hye-seon will be hoping that her efforts here will be more rewarding. As it stands, the film managed 13,980 over the weekend and is sitting on a total of 24,048. "The Peach Tree" stars Cho Seung-woo, Ryu Deok-hwan and Nam Sang-mi. Lastly, in the number ten spot we find "Savages" by Oliver Stone that stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively. The film broke even in the US and its opening weekend in Korea added just 8,340 to its efforts.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2012.11.02 - 2012.11.04 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "A Werewolf Boy" (늑대소년) 2012/10/31 1 030 285 1 294 479
2 "Skyfall"   459 005 1 694 359
3 "Masquerade" (광해, 왕이 된 남자) 2012/09/13 272 736 11 418 849
4 "Suspect X" (용의자X) 2012/10/18 108 248 1 462 108
5 "Argo"   56 647 79 989
6 "Confession of Murder" (내가 살인범이다) 2012/11/08 49 809 59 519
7 "Brave"   23 145 1 211 560
8 "Iron Dae-oh: The Nation's Iron Bag!" (강철대오 : 구국의 철가방) 2012/10/25 21 287 215 887
9 "The Peach Tree" (복숭아나무) 2012/10/31 13 980 24 048
10 "Savages"   8 340 13 278
Korean movies only  
  "A Company Man" (회사원) 2012/10/11 3 586 1 108 977
  "Speckles: The Tarbosaurus" 점박이: 한반도의 공룡 3D   2 352 1 038 992
  "Remembrance of MB" (MB의 추억) 2012/10/18 2 007 9 149
  "INFINITE Concert Second Invasion Evolution The Movie 3D" (인피니트 콘서트 세컨드 인베이전 에볼루션 더 무비 3D) 2012/10/18 694 39 128
  "The Great Flight" (위대한 비행) 2012/10/18 491 4 741
  "Cold City" (비정한 도시) 2012/10/25 333 21 285
  "Mac Korea" (맥코리아) 2012/10/18 310 2 447
  "Dirty Blood" (나쁜 피) 2012/11/01 308 629
  "Barbie" (바비) 2012/10/25 260 1 977


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