Sorry for the lateness of the box office again this week. But once again, KOBIS’s numbers were not finalized until today.

Lots of strange things to note in the top 10 this week. First of all, how mediocre THE DARK KNIGHT did. Sure it was No. 1, but it barely topped 1 million admissions. I thought it would have been closer to 2 million.

WALL-E also opened rather weakly, although Pixar has not had a huge hit in Korea since FINDING NEMO. Also this week there was a lot of competition.

In the world of positive strangeness, MUMMY 3 continued to kick butt. The movie is doing mad business here in Korea, way out of proportion compared to the rest of the world.

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

Why do Koreans love The Mummy franchise? Despite horrid reviews around the world and a pretty mediocre opening in the United States, THE MUMMY 3 had one of the strongest openings of the year, with about 2.1 million admissions (or about $13.5 million).

Note: THE MUMMY RETURNS has just 2.3 million admissions in its entire seven-week run, back in 2001 (making it the 10th biggest film of the year). MUMMY 3 beat that in about five days. The original THE MUMMY was the second-biggest film of 1999 in Korea (hard to say how well it did, because I only have Seoul numbers, but it probably had around 3 million admissions nationwide).

Kim Jee-woon’s THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD continues to do well, if perhaps not quite at THE HOST or D-WAR levels. But it has topped 5.17 million admissions now, making it the biggest film of the year.

Plenty of competition coming soon, but the smartypants over at CJ Entertainment had a pretty good idea — they have released the Cannes version of GBW, in around 10 theaters around Korea. An interesting way to keep the film a little fresher and encourage repeat business.

(Btw, I have seen both versions, and aside from about minute additional minutes at the end and one brief change in the opening, I do not recall any differences. The Cannes ending was not radically different, just less complete).

The thriller EYE FOR AN EYE had an okay opening, with 865,000 admissions since Thursday. Not bad, but I do not see it sticking around very long.

KUNG FU PANDA gets the longevity award, as it has been in the theaters here since June 5. These days, two months is forever.

PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS makes its last entry this week, with 4.2 million admissions. That’s about typical for a Kang Woo-suk film these days.

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

THE DARK KNIGHT opened last night (I know because I saw it), and while it might not break records like it is doing in the United States, I expect it to be very, very big. WALL-E opens tonight, and I fear it is going to be the forgotten film. Then again, Korea is not a great country for Pixar. RATATOUILLE did not even make it to 1 million admissions.

Incidentally, A BETTER TOMORROW opens on Aug. 8 at the old Dream Cinema, by Seodaemun Station (line No. 5). It is the last of the old-style theaters in Korea (big, crappy, one-screen). They have been experiencing a big of a revival, as they await the wrecking ball, by showing a lot of popular older films. First it was DIRTY DANCING. Then THE MISSION did fairly well. They have played some Korean classics, too. Sounds like a fun theatrical experience.

I want to update this week’s box office, but for some reason KOBIS is being really slow this week. The official government site is indicating last weekend’s top film, MUMMY 3, had about 240,000 admissions. But Universal Pictures International says that MUMMY 3 sold about 2.1 million tickets (about $13.5 million), which is rather radically different.

Maybe the person in charge of updating the KOBIS database is on summer vacation this week.

Anyhow, hope to post the box office numbers soon.

Sorry for not writing much these days (yet again). Been very busy with a bunch of fun and interesting projects. Might try to write about some of them some time soon.

But in the meantime, here is the latest Korean box office. As you can see, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD is holding up nicely. Distributor CJ Entertainment says that the Manchurian Western has toppped 4 million admissions already, after 11 days in the theaters, which is quite solid.

If I were to guess, I might predict GBW will top 8 million admissions. But I doubt it will beat 10 million, unfortunately. Still, a very impressive, solid hit.

On the other hand, Lee Jun-ik’s SUNNY did not excite many people. I have not seen it yet, but most people who have seem to think it is underwhelming (not a surprise, judging by the trailer).

For those of you who are concerned about such things, thanks to the latest PUBLIC ENEMY film, SUNNY and GBW, Korean films are now up over 40 percent of the box office for the year again. Yeah, Korean movies.

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

Still waiting for WALL-E, though…

No surprise, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD was the top film last weekend, pulling in about 2.2 million admissions since it opened on Thursday. That is good enough to be about the third-best opening for a Korean film ever (after D-WAR and THE HOST). It is also behind PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3 and SPIDER-MAN 3. Still, good company.

John Woo’s RED CLIFF put up a valiant fight for its second weekend, adding about $1.57 million to bring its Korean total to $8.14 million.

Otherwise, not a lot of excitement in the box office at the moment. The big question will be how well THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD holds on in the future. Will it fizz out quickly or continue strong?

Next weekend will see another potentially big film opening, Lee Jun-ik’s SUNNY, and after that WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT will be following closely, so the competition could be tough.

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

This year’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) kicked off last night. So naturally it is raining now. Taking place during Korea’s rainy season, PiFan is usually a pretty wet festival. Not that I mind — anything to keep temperatures down makes me happy.

PiFan opened with the animated film WALTZ WITH BASHIR, which I quite liked, despite the depressing subject matter (about the war in Lebanon in the 1980s). In fact, I think it was the best opening film I can recall at PiFan.

Was 28 DAYS LATER an opening film? That is the only thing close I can think of.

I am going to be too busy this year to spend a lot of time at PiFan (unlike last year, when I was here the whole time). But I am looking forward to seeing a few movies at least — especially the hwalgeuk films, international coproduction action films from the 1960s and 1970s.

The other fun thing I am looking forward to is some of the live concerts. Tonight there will be Kingston Rudieska and Windy City. Sunday is Crying Nut. But the most interesting show is defintely on Monday, as Sato Yukie and his Korea classic rock tribute band Gopchangjeongol will be playing.

More later. Maybe.

John Woo’s epic RED CLIFF got off to a pretty good start last weekend, as it had the biggest opening weekend for any Chinese-language film ever in Korea. With over 800,000 admissions in its first four days, distributor Showbox thinks it might be able to make it to 3 million admissions before its run is over, which would make it the all-time biggest Chinese film in Korea.

Getting to 3 million is going to be tough, though, with THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD opening this Thursday. I have a feeling GBW is going to be on just about every screen on the peninsula… going to be a very tough weekend for the competition next weekend.

As for this weekend’s movies… PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS is still doing fairly well, and has not inched past the 4 million admissions mark. Looks like 5 million is pretty unlikely, but not a bad run.

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

Will Lee Jun-ik’s SUNNY be this year’s D-WAR to GBW’s MAY 18? I.e., can Lee’s film (which will be released July 24) piggyback off of GBW’s excitement without being overwhelmed by the competition, similar to how D-WAR and MAY 18 both did well last year?. Still a couple of weeks ago from finding out.

Last year, the studios pretty much left August open for Korean films to do well. This year, however, we have WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT coming quickly, so there could be a lot more competition.