Mark James Russell

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Korea Weekend Box Office – June 6-8

June 10, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Holy crap! Korean movies in May had their worst month on record — just 7.8 percent of the boxoffice. KOFIC says that is the lowest level they have since 2000 (when they started tracking). Ouch.

Just one Korean film in the top 10 this week, GIRL SCOUT, so the bad news is going to continue for at least a little while longer.

Oh, and I am going back to tracking attendance, at least for this week. For some reason KOBIS is not updating, so I am using Film 2.0 stats, and they only track attendance. Not sure yet what I am going to do going forward.

(UPDATE: KOBIS finally updated its website. And this week’s numbers were slightly different than the earlier estimate, so I have updated below)

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Revenue (billion won) Total Revenue (billion won)
1. Kung Fu Panda 6.05 632 7.40 8.09
2. Indiana Jones and the Bored Our of My Skull 5.22 527 3.78 24.43
3. Sex & the City 6.05 412 2.41 3.02
4. What Happens in Vegas 5.29 299 1.01 3.83
5. Girl Scout (Korean) 6.05 292 0.88 1.05
6. Prince Caspian 5.15 236 0.57 9.09
7. The Eye 6.05 123 0.35 0.41
8. 88 Minutes 5.29 236 0.32 1.76
9. Iron Man 4.30 99 0.15 27.75
10. Body 5.29 118 0.079 0.69

(Source: Film 2.0)

As bleak as things are at the moment, they should start looking up soon, as some of Korea’s biggest films of the summer start to unroll — PUBLIC ENEMY 3 on June 19, CROSSING on June 26 and THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD on July 10 17.

Not so big but potentially interesting is the rotoscope romantic comedy SHE WAS COOL on June 12, Kwak Jae-young’s latest exercise in too-much-is-just-enough MY MIGHTY PRINCESS on June 26, and the historical epic THE DIVINE WEAPON on Aug. 7.

Will Korea Ever Get the iPhone?

June 10, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Apple head honcho Steve Jobs just announced the brand-spanking new 3G Apple iPhone, and it looks quite nice. NY Times story on the announcement here. One quibble on the story, though — it ends with:

The only major countries without an iPhone distribution agreement are Russia and China.

Does that mean the iPhone has a distribution agreement with South Korea? Or that Korea is not considered a “major country”? Apparently the second instance is true, and Korea is not getting the iPhone yet (last paragraph in that link).

For geopolitics, I agree that Korea is not a big fish. But for telecom and mobile services? Please. The Korean market is so much bigger than China’s. The Korean market is a major one.


It gets tiring dealing with dimwitted editors in New York or wherever that don’t get this. Like how everyone squeals about how big the China movie market is growing, when Korea’s is well over twice as big. Of course, at the rate China is growing (assuming you believe their statistics)(which I do not), and the rate Korea has stopped growing, China could overtake the Korean movie market in three or four years. But still… the point is Korea has been a bigger movie market than China for a decade (which, considering China’s past, essentially means that Korea has always been a bigger movie market than China).

Linking to Myself — Music Stuff

June 5, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I wrote about some Korean music, new and old, over at the Korea Gig Guide. Some stuff about Pastel Music and the original band of Lee Soo-man’s (the guy who created SM Entertainment, Boa and Dong Bang Shin Gi). Rather than double-post, I will let you just head over there if you are interested in reading about it.

Korea Weekend Box Office – May 30-June 1

June 3, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Only one Korean film in the top-10 again this week — CHERRY TOMATO, way down in tenth. Korean movies had dropped below 40 percent of the market for 2008 (down to 38.7%). American films are up to 47.9 percent. INDIANA JONES 4 remained at the top of the box office. All rather depressing.

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 5.22 735 5.55 19.30
2. What Happens in Vegas 5.29 346 1.70 1.98
3. Prince Caspian 5.15 402 1.00 8.31
4. 88 Minutes 5.29 257 0.95 1.01
5. Iron Man 4.30 323 0.65 27.42
6. The Body 5.29 208 0.40 0.48
7. We Own the Night 5.29 168 0.24 0.29
8. Never Back Down 5.22 156 0.10 0.73
9. Taken 4.09 80 0.086 15.90
10. Cherry Tomato (Bangeul Tomato – Korean) 5.29 104 0.072 0.084

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

The Godfather, America’s Top 40 and AFN Korea

May 31, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I just wrote about some of the fun things I got to do this week, with f/x companies and Robot Taekwon V. But I also had another really fun surprise — a couple of days ago I was emailed by the producer Fred Roos (who produced THE GODFATHER, BARFLY, LOST IN TRANSLATION and much more) about an article I wrote for The Hollywood Reporter about AFN Korea being taken off the air in Korea (at least on cable).

If you read this site at all regularly, you will know that I am quite interested in Korea’s media and entertainment history, especially the 1950s and 1960s. Last January, I had an article in The Hollywood Reporter about how AFN Korea is supposed to be removed from Korea’s cable systems soon (actually, it was suppose to be gone already, but my cable service still is rebroadcasting it).

Anyhow, thanks to Mr. Roos, I had AFKN on my mind recently, and while doing a little research, I just stumbled across some fascinating AFKN history. It is a website called SOUNDS OF THE FAR EAST NETWORK, and it is all about US Armed Forces radio and TV in Japan. But it also has a small section (and very interesting article) about the American Forces Broadcasting in Korea.

(Not Armed Forces Network, but American Forces Network. I did not know that until I read that article).

The FEN site led me to the AFKN section of the Imjin Scout website. Imjin Scout’s AFKN page was then spun-off into its own website, AFKN Alumni, which in turn has this AFKN history page and these pics).

AFNKorea.net also has its own history page… but for some reason, I cannot access it. Not sure if the problem is my computer or my location or what. But this is the Google cache of it.

Over here, one ex-AFRTS guy has uploaded a bunch of old radio broadcasts, dating back to 1964. Including the “American Disco Network,” from 1978.

As for AFKN, now only did Roos work there when he was in the military, but so did the famous producer Garry Marshall and the famous deejay Kasey Kasem. I wonder if many more big entertainment people passed through AFRTS in Korea over the years.

Giant Robots and Other Fun

May 31, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This week was one of those really fun weeks that makes me glad to have the job that I do. I got to meet a lot of cool, interesting people and see some extremely cool and interesting things.

One story this week for The Hollywood Reporter was about the coming Robot Taekwon V movie that the veteran filmmaker Shin Chul is producing. The Hollywood producer William Teitler (POLAR EXPRESS, JUMANJI) has signed onto the project, so I talked to him and Shin and the other nice people at Shin’s company.


The new Robot Taekwon V movie will be based on the comic books that were just published (that Shin commissioned). It is a sequel to the original story, taking place 32 years after the first movie. Kim Hoon, the young hero of the first film, is now a 45-year-old salaryman with a lousy job and a bad marriage, when he gets a chance to pilot the 56-meter-tall robot again. Judging by the comic, the new story definitely has a lot of potential.

(Oh, it looks like the movie will not be coming to theaters until summer of 2010. So you will have to wait).

I even got to see an amazing bit of demo animation that local f/x house Mofac Studio made. I think something like seven f/x companies will be working on the Robot Taekwon V movie, but unfortunately, I think the Mofac demo is a secret and I have not been able to find anything about it online. There are these two videos on Youtube (here and here), but I think Mofac’s was a lot more impressive.

Then for something else I was working on, I coincidentally got to spend some time at the Mofac office on Friday. Mofac is one of Korea’s top f/x studios, and has worked on a lot of big projects, from VOLCANO HIGH to TAEWANGSASINGI (and now is doing a lot of work on LAUNDRY WARRIOR). Their office was quite cool. A nice renovated house, with walls covered in signed STAR WARS posters; President Jang has one of the most amazing collections of STAR WARS toys I have ever seen (along with plenty of comic book toys, anime toys and other goodies). Definitely looked like a fun place to work.

Korea Weekend Box Office – May 23-25

May 27, 2008 / / 0 Comments

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.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird Looks All Good

May 25, 2008 / / 0 Comments

The first review of THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD is in and so far the film is looking pretty good.


Derek Elley at Variety gives the film a very good review, saying:

From the initial train holdup through a shantytown gun battle to a 15-minute desert flatlands chase that’s a jaw-dropper, pic maintains an ironic grin that leavens the heavy discharges of ordnance and continuous roundelay of faceoffs.


Also nice to read in Derek’s review that Jung Woo-sung’s performance holds up, as there have been rumors that Lee Byung-hun and Song Gang-ho were much better than Jung.

One quibble with Derek’s review, though — why does he call the movie the “most expensive South Korean movie to date”? Uh, D-WAR?

I will add more reviews as I find them.

Copyrights and Wrongs and Rants

May 21, 2008 / / 2 Comments

It has been a rather copyrighty couple of weeks for me, with the Korea Copyright Forum, the Seoul Digital Forum and the International Publishers Association Congress in Seoul and the USTR keeping Korea on its IP watchlist (sorry but I am too tired and lazy to link to all of those).

And throughout those “fun” events, a common message coming out of them was the need for governments to enforce copyright protections. Sometimes the message was nuanced and interesting (eg, Ted Cohen); sometimes it was the usual heavy-handed “arrest-them-all” rant (eg, Sumner Redstone).

(And once it was “Piracy is good,” when will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas spoke at the Seoul Digital Forum. Luckily, it was the day after Redstone’s rant, or else the ancient billionaire might have had a stroke).

While I do agree that there needs to be some respect for copyrights, listening to all of that corporate self-righteousness got me thinking, what are the corporations’ responsibilities for respecting copyrights?

Korea has shown pretty clearly that people are more than willing to spend money on music and other digital entertainment, as long as that entertainment is convenient, reliable and reasonably priced.

They spent money even when the competition is “free.” Because free really is not free at all. You hope the music file you are downloading works, but it might not. Or it might have a virus or some other nasty bit of code in it. And figuring how to make the bittorrent or emule or whatever work is not much fun. The “free” options are a pain in the butt, and that is a real cost, just like money.

Despite all the whining about Korea’s piracy problems, last year Koreans spent over $300 million on online and mobile music. Combined with $80 million in CD sales and you have a number pretty consistent with music sales for the past 10 years. (Sure the music labels complain that they are not getting their fare share, but the important point is that consumers are still spending as much money as ever).

Cory Doctorow, Radiohead, NIN and plenty of others have shown that making your stuff available on the Internet does not hurt their value. If anything, availability and accessibility enhances value.

My main point is, what responsibility do the various entertainment companies (big and small) around the world have to make sure their content is available? In Korea, it is pitiful how few movies and TV shows are available here, whether on DVD or online. Even programs that I know have been subtitled in Korean.

How can companies expect customers to respect their copyrights when they do not provide access to their copyrighted contents?

In the Internet age, people anywhere in the world have the ability to find, download and watch/listen to just about anything (as long as the Internet connection is good enough). The whole idea that you can divide up the world into pieces and control when each area gets access to something is so antiquated and backward.

Until the media companies start making a serious effort to make their contents available to me here in Korea (and to people in general around the world), I am not going to lose much sleep about them losing money to “piracy.”

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