At long last, a Korean film is back on top of the box office, Kang Woo-suk’s PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS. Like you would expect from a Kang film, it opened strong, with 1.4 million admissions over the weekend (around $7 million). The big question is how well it will hold up over the next couple of weeks. Kang’s SILMIDO kept on strong to 11 million admissions, but ANOTHER PUBLIC ENEMY and HANBANDO fell off more sharply, ending up with 3.9 million million admissions each.

The other Korean movie in the top-10, CROSSING, is quite interesting, considering it has not even been officially released yet. Release is set for June 26, but already the film is on 100 screens. In case you have not heard, director Kim Tae-gyun’s CROSSING is about North Korean defectors and the terrible dangers that await then as they try to get out of North Korea, through China, to freedom.

With so many thousands of people taking to the streets in recent weeks over American beef and Lee Myung-bak, it will be interesting to see how much of a response an actually important subject draws.

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Revenue (bil. won) Total Revenue (bil. won)
1. Public Enemy Returns (Gangcheoljung – Korean) 6.19 806 7.53 9.16
2. Kung-fu Panda 6.05 604 4.05 21.66
3. Incredible Hulk 6.12 415 1.25 5.68
4. Get Smart 6.19 249 0.64 0.75
5. Sex & the City 6.05 285 0.54 6.43
6. 21 6.19 87 0.39 0.45
7. Doomsday 6.19 264 0.36 0.44
8. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 5.22 217 0.23 26.59
9. The Happening 6.13 293 0.21 2.27
10. Crossing (Korean) 6.26 110 0.10 0.13

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