Just two Korean movies in the top-10 last weekend… But they were the most popular two films, so at least they made it count. Same as last weekend, A FROZEN FLOWER followed by SCANDAL MAKERS.

So far in 2009, Korean movies are accounting for 53.5 percent of the box office. So are we happier?

Not much notable, otherwise. BE KIND REWIND opened only in 11th, but that is not really a surprise. REWIND’s opening weekend of 17,000 admissions was slightly better than THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP’s opening of 12,000. Not sure if that makes me happy, because Michel Gondry is doing better, or depressed, because it did better than THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (which I really liked).

Things should get more interesting next weekend, as the pre-Seollal holiday films start to get released.

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

CJ CGV, South Korea’s biggest multiplex chain, just put out its report on the movie business in 2008. And, not surprisingly, it was mostly bad news.

(Note: CGV’s numbers may not be as official as the Korea Film Council’s, but they are good enough for this post. KOFIC’s official numbers should be out in the next couple of months.)

Nationwide attendance dropped 5.7 percent to 149 million, down from 158 million last year and 167 million from 2006’s record-setting year. Although it is worth noting that even 149 million is still the third-best year ever for box office revenues in Korea.

Much more damning, however, was the dramatic fall in admissions to local films. South Korean movies accounted for just 42.5 percent of the box office, their lowest level since 2000. Ouch.

So out of 149 million admissions, Korean films took in just 63.4 million. That’s down a whopping 41 percent from 2006, Korean movies’ best year ever.

On the other hand, pretty good news for Hollywood, which had its best year ever in Korea, with 85.7 million admissions — up 10 percent from last year, the previous best for non-Korean films.

As for the top films themselves:

1. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (Korean) – 6.9 million
2. The Chaser (Korean) – 5.1 million
3. Mamma Mia – 4.6 million
4. Kung Fu Panda – 4.6 million
5. Gang Cheol-jung: Public Enemy 1.1 (Korean) – 4.4 million
6. Scandal Makers (Korean) – 4.3 million *
7. The Mummy 3 – 4.2 million
8. Iron Man – 4.2 million
9. Forever the Moment (Korean) – 4.1 million
10. Indiana Jones 4 – 4.0 million

(* Scandal Makers is still in theaters, and has already topped 5 million admissions, but this chart was just for 2008)

Korean movies were, once again, the most popular in the land and five of the top 10. And nine of the top 20.

Isn’t the Korean market interesting, though? The Mummy 3 and Mamma Mia did better business than The Dark Knight. Hah! Given how well The Chaser did, I think you cannot argue that Koreans do not like dark films. But for some reason, Batman just does not resonate with Koreans as much as with Americans. Considering how well Transformers did last year (the best foreign movie ever in Korea) and Iron Man, maybe Koreans just prefer big metal heroes… which would bode well for the Robot Taekyun V movie.

So what is ahead for 2009? Heck if I know. But it is starting strong, with Scandal Makers still doing well and A Frozen Flower starting the year strong. Plenty of films are lining up for the annual Seollal lunar New Year rush. And I don’t see anything too exciting coming out of Hollywood for the next few months (except possible Watchmen on March 5).

So there is a good chance that Korean movies will get a good start to 2009. Then you have the new Park Chan-wook film coming out in April, Bong Joon-ho’s Mother in May, and Choi Dong-hoon’s fantasy film Jeon Woo Chi later in the summer. The big-budgets films Laundry Warrior and Haeundae later in the year. Plenty of reasons to be optimistic in 2009.

UPDATE: I just noticed that KOFIC changed their numbers some time over the last couple of days. I hate that. So I have changed the numbers in the chart and throughout my post.

ORIGINAL:
Yoo Ha’s adult tale of courtly and bedroom intrigue in the Goryeo Dynasty, A FROZEN FLOWER, got off to a hot start last weekend, taking in 575,000 745,000 admissions over the weekend and 1.28 1.52 million since it was released on Dec. 30. That works out to nearly 4 over 5.1 billion won over the weekend and 8.6 10.25 billion won overall (or about $3.2 $4.2 million and $6.9 $8.2 million). That is pretty strong, especially for an adult film that young people could not get into.

SCANDAL MAKERS continues its torrid pace, earning another 2.6 3.4 billion won to bring its one-month haul to 32.4 33.5 billion won ($26 $27 million).

Following those two Korean films, you have a long list of Hollywood majors, mostly doing minor business. Except for No. 5, where Miyazaki’s PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA made another 760 971 million won, bringing its total to 8.3 8.4 billion won ($6.6 million).

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

In a hopeful sign for the future, I’M SORRY DOKDO did pretty sorry business. Opening on 26 screens, DOKDO opened in 22nd, with just 12 million won ($10,000). So much potential for snark… But I will try to control myself. Suffice it to say, I think we just found a good metric for how strongly Koreans really feel about this fake controversy — i.e., not very much.

Now let’s never speak of this film again.

Looks like Korean movies will end the year on a bit of a high note, as the No. 1 spot at the box office went to the local film SCANDAL MAKERS (aka OVERSPEED SCANDAL, aka SPEED SCANDAL, aka GWASOK SEUKAENDEUL) (and even SCANDLE MAKERS, which I assume and hope was just a typo).

Anyhow, SCANDAL is still going strong, a month after its release. Buoyed by the Christmas holidays, SCANDAL upped its total take at the box office to about 24 billion won (or $18.7 million, depending on what the exchange rate is doing at the moment). That is about 3.7 million admissions. Best of all, its 487,000 admissions over the weekend is still better than the film’s opening weekend four weeks ago.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL came in second with over $1.7 million. But thanks to the Christmas bump, it has grossed nearly $5 million since its release on Dec. 24.

Miyakazi’s latest, PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, is in third, with a decent but not great $1.1 million, bringing its total to $4.5 million. I am surprised. I thought it would have gotten a bigger bump from the holidays.

The only other Korean films were at the bottom of the top-10 — LOST & FOUND held at No. 7, and ROMANTIC ISLAND bombed with a 10th place debut.

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

It really was just a top-10 this week. After the 10th place film, no other movie was playing on more than nine screens in the whole country.

A little good news for the Korean film industry at the end of a tough year. Two Korean movies appeared on the International Watch List, an unofficial survey of 50 Hollywood film industry executives and their assistants. They were asked to vote for up to five international features and five short films released in 2008, “to highlight new filmmaking talent from abroad, to inspire creativity and spread the word about the international favorites of the year.”

No surprised which two films made the list, as they were the most successful two Korean films last year — Na Hong-jin’s THE CHASER (which tied for third with eight votes) and Kim Jee-woon’s THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (four votes).

I wonder how long that International Watch List has been compiled. Would be interesting to see what films appeared on it in past years.

(Thanks to Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily).

After three weekends in a row in the No. 1 spot, seems safe to say that OVERSPEED SCANDAL is a solid hit. In fact, it made more money last weekend than it did the opening weekend. Despite a bad trailer, people really like it and are giving it good word of mouth.

I am a little surprised that PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, the latest animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, did not open better. But with the Christmas holidays, I suppose the film’s distributors are hoping to get a kick from the kiddie crowd over the next couple of weeks.

After that, we have a block of Hollywood dreck, with JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH in third, TWILIGHT in fourth, YES MAN in fifth and AUSTRALIA in sixth.

Winner of the butt-kicking-of-the-week award goes to LOST AND FOUND, which despite opening on 480 screens, could only manage $740,000, or 7th place. Ouch.

I was happy to see David Cronenberg’s latest (abeit from 2007) film EASTERN PROMISES sneak into the top 10 (albeit is a tiny $20,000). A fun little film from one of my favorite directors. And, of course, some quality gore.

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

FYI, MAMMA MIA is lurking in Korea still, coming in 11th this week, despite appearing on just seven screens nationwide. Not bad for a movie that opened in the beginning of September.