Books, blog and other blather
One good sign for THE HOST — the number of screens it is on has increased. It opened on 71 screens and has moved up to 94 now. In comparison, SSFW&S opened on just 6, but grew to 71 during its run. TAEGUKGI opened on 29 and made it to 34, but declined pretty quickly. OLDBOY grew from 5 to 28.
Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture (2nd edition) is the only English-language book to examine the whole of Korea's entertainment industry and how it became such a powerhouse over the past 20 years. With profiles of many of Korea's top stars (including Lee Byung-hun and Rain), Pop Goes Korea features chapters on movies, music, television, comic books, the Internet, and more.
On sale now at:
Amazon.com
Kobo eBooks
And hopefully more ebooks stores very soon.
The original edition of Pop Goes Korea is now out of print.
K-Pop Now! takes a fun look at Korea’s high-energy pop music, and is written for its growing legions of fans. It features all the famous groups and singers, and takes an insider’s look at how they have made it to the top.
You can buy at:
Amazon.com
Chapters Indigo
Tuttle (my publisher)
Kyobo Books (in Korea)
Goodreads (not for buying, but still a good link)
© 2024 Mark James Russell
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Thanks for the Subtitle Film Festival info. I’ll try to go see some of the films.
How does The Host compare to other similar foreign (subtitled, I hope) films in the box office?
Hi Antti:
Depends on where you are talking about. In North America and Europe, very few Korean films have made much money. In Japan, on the other hand, several films have done okay at the box office… WINDSTRUCK ($18 million), APRIL SNOW ($26 million) and A MOMENT TO REMEMBER ($30 million), to pick out the three biggest. Not sure how DVD stacks up, but you can make a lot of money on DVD in Japan (since the Japanese buy a lot of DVDs, at $50 a pop).
In North America and Europe, I believe Kim Ki-duk’s SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER … AND SPRING is the most successful Korean film of all time ($7.1 million in Europe, $2.4 million in the US) according to Box Office Mojo.
TAEGUKGI: USA – $1.1 million, HK – $0.34 million, Japan $9.7 million.
OLDBOY: USA – $707,000, UK – $560,000, France – $760,000, Greece – $423,000, Italy, $434,000.
THE HOST – France $985,000, Spain $1 million, Japan $1.5 million, USA $1.1 million (and counting).
Don’t know how those films did in Sweden, sorry. Although Norway spent $34,000 on OLDBOY and $100,000 on SPRING SUMMER ETC.
Thanks for your answer! I see I didn’t make myself very clear: I was thinking of The Host in comparison to other foreign films in the US market.
About Kim Ki-duk’s latest, my impression is that the one about cosmetic surgery must have run longer in Helsinki than in Seoul…
Antti – Oh, I see what you meant.
Well, obviously THE HOST is not setting any records for foreign films in the United States. It is no CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
But at the moment, THE HOST is the biggest foreign-language film in the United States (according to Box Office Mojo). THE HOST was No. 21 on Tuesday, followed by PAN’S LABYRINTH at No. 26, and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA at 41.
That said, PAN’S LABYRINTH has now made $37 million in the United States, and IWO JIMA has made $13.7 million.
Btw, Ham Tran’s JOURNEY FROM THE FALL is doing quite well in its limited run, too. It has made $217,000 on just six screens in 10 days. If you are in New York or somewhere JOURNEY is playing, it is worth checking out.