Another holiday Monday, another extra day to juice the box office. Seollal (Lunar New Year), however, is not a big movie-going holiday, especially this year when it fell on a Sunday, minimizing the amount of free time people would have (most people spent Sunday and/or Monday in the car, coming and going to their families).
Nevertheless, a pretty big wave of new releases hit this weekend, opening to ride the holiday to a little extra revenue. A full six of the top 10 films this week are new releases.
Ha Ji-won’s MIRACLE ON 1ST STREET landed in the top spot this week, taking in just under 1 million admissions, or about $6.5 million, from its early Wednesday night opening until the end of Monday (which is much closer to an opening week than weekend).
No. 2 went to Cha Tae-hyun’s HIGHWAY STAR, where he played an aspiring rocker turned trot star in a wrestling mask. Is anyone else as annoyed by this manufactured trot comeback as I am? I have been known to enjoy a little ppongjjak music from time to time, but the sudden flurry of press and other trot-related product feels really forced and artificial to me.
VOICE OF A MURDERER is nearing the 3-million-attendance mark, which is not too shabby at all.
FLAG OF OUR FATHERS was the biggest foreign film, coming in at No. 5 overall (up nicely from its No. 7 early projection), with a little over $1 million in revenue. Undoubtedly MASTER KIMS performed better nationwide, though. I was almost tempted to go see ROCKY BALBOA, which opened in No. 7… but only almost.
I was nicely surprised by the success of THE QUEEN. Always good to see Helen Mirren doing well, thanks to a little Oscar buzz (at a guess). So was that the first movie ever in which Ms Mirren did not get nude?
What the heck is a Terabithia?
And, amazingly enough, 200 POUND BEAUTY finally fell out of the top 10 (it was No. 11). YOBI, THE FIVE-TAILED FOX was twelfth.
| This Week | Title…………………………………. | Release Date | Screens Nationwide | Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) | Total Attendance |
| 1. | Miracle on 1st Street | 2.14 | 390 | 207,000 | 962,000 | 2. | Highway Star | 2.14 | 332 | 128,900 | 646,900 | 3. | A Day for an Affair | 2.08 | 326 | 127,500 | 1,389,900 | 4. | Voice of a Murderer | 1.31 | 285 | 92,000 | 2,961,000 | 5. | Flag of Our Fathers | 2.15 | 102 | 58,900 | 151,100 | 6. | Master KIMs | 2.08 | 294 | 56,700 | 915,200 | 7. | Rocky Balboa | 2.14 | 201 | 51,800 | 170,200 | 8. | Bridge to Terabithia | 2.15 | 134 | 43,000 | 193,200 | 9. | The Queen | 2.15 | 43 | 21,600 | 43,300 | 10. | Charlotte’s Web | 2.08 | 129 | 18,000 | 250,000 |
(Source: Film2.0)
Hey Mark,
Any idea what happened to Little Children? Most of the sites I check say it was set to come out here February 15th, and I can’t find a trace of it. Daum.net’s movie listings don’t show it playing anywhere. Could it have come out and only stuck around for a single week?