Big turnover this week, with half of the top-10 consisting of new entries, led by Jeon Yoon-soo’s LA GRAND CHEF, with about $3.6 million. Based on the comic book by Heo Yeong-man (TAZZA), LA GRAND CHEF is also being made into a TV show, so if you like it, you are sure to get plenty more soon enough.

The next new title this week was HERO, the Fuji-TV film featuring a cameo from Lee Byung-hun. With 271 screens, it had the widest release ever for a Japanese film in Korea, just slightly ahead of THE SINKING OF JAPAN’s 256. Did not come close, however, to matching SINKING’s boxoffice, which pulled in 479,000 in its opening weekend, compared to 128,000 for HERO.

Other new releases did not do much. KINGDOM had just 127,000 admissions, BLACK DAHLIA (released a year late) had 75,000. And Lee Joon-ki’s latest, VIRGIN SNOW, took in just 13,000. Although VIRGIN SNOW did get a 44 screen release — for a while there, it was looking like it would only get 10 screens. But this Japan-Korea coproduction has its eye on the Japan DVD market for the bulk of its revenues.

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance Total Attendance
1. Le Grand Chef (Sikgaek- Korean) 11.01 436 440,813 518,397
2. Going by the Book (Bareuge Salja – Korean) 10.18 329 261,335 1,661,958
3. Shadows in the Palace (Gungneo – Korean) 10.18 287 108,427 1,234,644
4. Hero (Japan) 11.01 271 104,915 128,202
5. Kingdom 11.01 192 102,192 127,675
6. Black Dahlia 11.01 215 60,230 75,412
7. M (Korean) 10.25 318 45,912 396,098
8. Resident Evil 3 10.18 190 34,788 509,799
9. Virgin Snow (Cheotnun – Korean) 11.01 44 10,511 12,814
10. Copying Beethoven 10.11 43 10,122 265,281

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 97% of nationwide box office)