Category: Korean movies (Page 20 of 31)

Seven of the top 10 films were Korean this week, as local movies usually dominate over big holiday periods like Chuseok. With most people off work through to Wednesday, that should mean some decent boxoffice for a lot of releases. Nothing overwhelming this year, but several films are doing okay.

Kwak Kyung-taek’s is back on top of the boxoffice in Korea, this time with quite a change of pace from TYPHOON, a much smaller film called LOVE. No official word on how LOVE did over the weekend, but according to KOBIS, it had about 388,000 admissions, or around $2.6 million, or around $3.4 million altogether.

BOURNE ULTIMATUM made another $2.4 million over the weekend to bring its total Korea take to $6.9 million.

After that, nothing terribly interesting this week. Except, perhaps, ONCE, a nice little Irish film (we do not see many Irish films on the charts around here).

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

Incidentally, MAY 18 has now dropped to No. 11, with 2,970 admissions over the weekend. Kind of amusing to see it trade places with D-WAR, yet again.

Steve Martin’s SHOPGIRL has been on TV a lot lately. I do not know why (because it is quite a slight story), but I rather enjoyed that movie. Liked it rather more than some more “respectable” movies I have seen lately.

Sorry for the lack of postings (yet again). The Hollywood Reporter is going to be publishing dailies at the Pusan International Film Festival, together with CINE 21 (Korea’s leading movie magazine). Septembers are usually my busy season, prepping for PIFF, and with the dailies this year, I am busier than ever.

In general, it looks like an interesting year for PIFF. It does not have any easy hooks for the foreign journalist crowd like last year (when there were a bunch of films about North Korea), but there still seems to be many interesting things going on.

Personally, I am most interested in the retrospectives and the latest Peter Greenaway film… but I never claimed to have the most cutting-edge or imaginative tastes.

Also, with the dailies and other THR stuff, I doubt I will have much time for movie marathons. But such is life…

No big surprise that THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM took the took spot this week, pulling in around $3.6 million.

Strangely, Universal reported it was on just 219 screens, far less than KOBIS’s 404. Certainly seems like a screwup to me. If BOURNE was on just 219 screens, it would have had a huge per-screen average. And the theater I saw it in was respectable, but not huge.

Btw, what’s up with people saying this BOURNE was really good? My girlfriend and I found it horrible. Just way too much of everything (except plot) (and nuance). Re-watched THE BOURNE IDENTITY, and it is amazing how much more interesting the original is.

After BOURNE, the next six slots all went to Korean movies. No one really stood out, but together they accounted for the bulk of last weekend’s admissions. As of Monday, Korean movies were back over 49% of the year’s box office.

MISSION POSSIBLE gets my vote for worst English title for a Korean film so far this year. Just bizarre.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

Oh, and D-WAR is officially the biggest Korean movie ever in America now, thanks to its $5.4 million weekend. Hate to think about how much the distributor paid for prints and advertising, but still it broke the record.

Another boring week at the Korean boxoffice. Daniel Henney’s well received MY FATHER opened in No. 1. Quentin Tarantino’s DEATHPROOF opened way down in sixth. Despite a nonstop barrage of ads for the past month, BRAVO MY LIFE opened in seventh.

What is the deal with Baek Yoon-shik? Half the time he stars in really great films, like SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, TAZZA or THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG. But the other half of the time, he stars in some pretty terrible films (eg, BRAVO MY LIFE). I think he needs a new manager.

Anyhow, the latest BOURNE movie comes out this week, along with the early wave of Chuseok titles, so things should heat up a lot.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

A quiet, wimpy weekend at the box office as we have entered that lull between summer and Chuseok. With not many people going to the theater and nothing too popular, we have some strange things going on, such as the No. 10 movie appearing on more screens than the No. 1 movie.

At long last, neither D-WAR nor MAY 18 were the top movies. Instead, DISTURBIA led the box office. Zzzzzz.

D-WAR is really crashing hard and fast now. On Friday, barely 15,000 people went to see it. As of Sunday, though, D-WAR’s total admissions were now at 8.22 million, officially making it the fifth-biggest movie in Korean history. With zero chance of moving up the charts, thankfully.

MAY 18, on the other hand, still has some legs, chugging along in third. Unfortunately, I have not heard from CJ Entertainment what its “real” total is so far, so I only have the KOBIS estimate of 6.52 million admissions.
(UPDATE: Aha. Just got the CJ email. As of Monday evening, MAY 18 has just topped 7 million admissions. 7.003 million to be exact).

Nice to see STARDUST still holding up, despite being such a non-hit. All the films launched last week that made their debuts above STARDUST have quickly fallen below the quirky fantasy film.

After dipping to just 42 percent of the year’s box office at the end of July, Korean films have now recovered to a more presentable 48.5 percent. Quite a nice rebound in just one month.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

After a three-week break, MAY 18 is back on top of the box office, proving to be the tortoise to D-WAR’s hare. Or something like that. Anyhow, CJ Entertainment’s big movie of the summer, about the Gwangju Massacre, has now pulled in 6.61 million admissions, or about $45 million.

D-WAR may be declining fast, but it is still raking in the money. As of the end of Sunday, it had topped 8 million admissions (or about $54 million). D-WAR is now the sixth-biggest film in Korean history and is a lock to pass FRIEND to become No. 5. But considering how quickly D-WAR is falling now (down by over 50% from last weekend, which was over 50% from the weekend before that), it looks like it will not make the magical 10 million admissions level.

Even better than last week, Korean films accounted for the entire top-5 and eight of the top-10 movies this week. Impressive.

Also impressive was the staying power of STARDUST. Despite a mediocre opening and plenty of competition, Neil Gaiman’s fairytale dropped barely 11% from its opening weekend. As I said in yesterday’s post, the Art Reon theater in Shinchon actually moved STARDUST from the smallest screen to the second-largest.

SIMPSONS – THE MOVIE had a less than impressive debut, with just over 140,000 admissions. At the screening I attended over the weekend, everyone seemed to enjoy the film a lot, and very few jokes got lost in translation.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

It was a fairly busy week last week, thanks to the 8.15 holiday, which saw plenty of new films released on Tuesday. The top two films remained unchanged, D-WAR and MAY 18.

D-WAR keeps on wreaking havoc, having now topped 7.45 million admissions (about $50 million) (well, maybe a little less, considering how many tickets are lower-priced children seats). That makes Shim Hyung-rae’s dragon movie the seventh biggest film in Korean history, and it is certain to at least make it to fifth soon — FRIEND and WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL are going down. But I still doubt the “big four” (SILMIDO, TAEGUKGI, THE KING AND THE CLOWN and THE HOST) are in danger.

As of the end of Sunday, MAY 18 has officially passed 6 million admissions, or about $40 million. That makes it the 12th biggest Korean film ever, as is certain to pass MY BOSS, MY TEACHER and SHIRI this week. I think it should make it past the 7 million mark, depending on the new releases over the next couple of weeks.

It is going to feel strange, though, living in a world where SHIRI is not even in the top-10 biggest Korean films anymore. What a completely different movie country Korean has become since SHIRI blew everyone away back in 1999.

Two new Korean movies took the Nos. 3 and 4 spots, with respectable openings – UNDERGROUND RENDEZVOUS and CHANGING PARTNERS. I hope having the top four movies going to Korean movies (and four of the top six) will quell the worst of the fears of local filmmakers.

STARDUST did pretty good in Korea, at least in contrast to its lousy opening in the United States, taking in $2.4 million. I actually found it a little loud and heavy-handed for my tastes (fairy tales should be delicate, not bombastic, imho), but the other people in the cinema seemed to quite like it.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

Showbox is reporting that Shim Hyung-rae’s silly monster movie just broke the 6-million-admissions level. In fact, by the time I type this (5:10 on Tuesday), it has probably topped 6.1 million, to make it the 10th-biggest Korean film ever. That is enough to knock MY BOSS MY TEACHER out of the top 10 altogether, which brings me no end of happiness. SHIRI will doubtlessly fall tomorrow.

I was feeling somewhat ambivalent about D-WAR (it is pretty dumb and bad, but marginally tolerable for a children’s movie), but reading Shim’s latest is rapidly making me downgrade my already low opinion.

“If this movie had been made by James Cameron, it would have turned the whole world upside down.”

Uh, no. Feel free to read the VARIETY review for a good sense of the movie. (I do not mind linking to the competition because they just linked to my blog the other day).

Another big weekend for D-WAR, as Shim Hyung-rae’s monster movie topped the 5-million admissions mark with ease. And that is just for the 94% of the nationwide box office that KOBIS tracks. In fact, as of the Monday, D-WAR is now over 5.71 million admissions according to Showbox (that’s about $39 million).

MAY 18 is also chugging along, quite respectably, as it too is nearing 5 million admissions. (UPDATE: CJ Entertainment just said that MAY 18 topped 5 million on Monday).

Marvel Comic’s latest superhero film, FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, had a more modest debut, with just 336,429 admissions.

With RETURN in fourth, that gives Korean movies three of the top four spots… just like old times. Unfortunately, 280,000 admissions is not exactly stellar.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

Personally, I am more interested in the movies coming out this week, such as STARDUST and ZODIAC. But I fear they will both get pummeled fairly badly by MR. BEAN’S HOLIDAY. But who knows? Maybe Michelle Pfeiffer has the star power to give STARDUST a nice boost.