No surprise that the new INDIANA JONES film won quite handily this week. It took in 1.6 million admissions, or about $9.1 million. That is quite good — as in SHREK 3 good. But not PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3 good.

Considering all the competition coming soon (SEX & THE CITY on June 6), not to mention how dreadful INDIANA 4 is (so very, very boring and witless), I’m guessing it should get over 5 million admissions, but nowhere near TRANSFORMERS numbers.

PRINCE CASPIAN got its butt kicked pretty badly in Korea, far outdone by INDY 4 and IRON MAN (although all three films are beating SPEED RACER).

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Revenue (bil. won) Total Revenue (bil. won)
1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 5.22 848 9.11 10.50
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian 5.15 584 1.86 6.82
3. Iron Man 4.30 432 1.34 26.28
4. Never Back Down 5.22 204 0.36 0.41
5. Taken 4.09 180 0.25 15.63
6. Penelope 5.15 192 0.21 1.26
7. Speed Racer 5.08 265 0.13 5.15
8. Nallari Jongbujeon – Korean 5.22 196 0.088 0.10
9. Horton Hears a Who 4.30 51 0.030 3.78
10. Detective Conan: Phantom of Baker Street 5.01 13 0.018 0.70

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

Korean films are down to 41 percent of the box office. And not too many strong Korean films on the horizon until THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD hits in July.

Which reminds me, I think Hollywood is giving THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD a pretty wide berth. WALL-E and HANCOCK are getting released here at the same time as they are in United States (late June/early July), but the new Batman and X-Files movies are being bumped until August… I presume to give them a better chance. If director Kim Jee-woon does not screw this up, it looks like his film will be a monster hit.