Korea Weekend Box Office - Sept. 15-17

After a quiet couple of weeks, a new hit opened last weekend, the melodrama MAUNDY THURSDAY, the story of a woman who wants to die and a man on death row who would much rather not. Directed by Song Hae-sung (FAILAN, RIKIDOZAN), MAUNDY was faulted by some film critics for being rather obvious. But for melodramas, obviousness is not always a failing. Anyhow, I have not seen it yet, so I should probably keep my snarky comments to myself.

Other notes... A disappointing opening for PUZZLE. The noir-ish crime drama had a pretty heavy push by Cinema Service, but nevertheless opened weakly. I'm guessing that it was too similar looking to WAR OF FLOWERS (타짜), which comes out next week (and looks to be a more interesting film).

Also, THE HOST is still chugging along. Looks like it will top the 13-million-attendance point in the next week.

This Week	Title........................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Attendance (Seoul only)	Total Attendance
1.	Maundy Thursday	9.14	520	297,800	1,204,400
2.	Puzzle	9.14	235	52,600	178,800
3.	Between Love and Hate	9.07	228	45,000	552,000
4.	Like a Virgin	8.31	169	33,000	628,000
5.	The Host	7.27	215	23,600	12,921,000
6.	Sinking of Japan	8.31	203	17,000	916,600
7.	Three Fellas	9.07	228	16,600	395,300
8.	The Sentinel	9.07	90	10,100	154,900
9.	United 93	9.07	58	4,000	73,000
10.	No Mercy for the Rude	8.24	54	2,100	902,000

(source: Film 2.0)

(Note: Three Fellas was "Ttukbang Jeonseol" in last week's box office chart)