Korea Weekend Box Office - Jan. 19-21

A remarkably stable weekend at the box office. Despite having a new No. 1 film, many films in the top-10 experienced very little drop-off from last week. 200 POUND BEAUTY took in just 200 fewer viewers last weekend in Seoul compared to the previous weekend. Not bad for a movie that has been out for a month and a half.

DEJA VU and BLOOD DIAMOND also experienced only small declines, BLOOD DIAMOND so much so that it rose from seventh to sixth. ERAGON, on the other hand, did have a pretty substantial drop, falling from first to fifth.

The new No. 1 movie is MAPADO 2. Did not see it. But it is interesting to see how its Seoul weekend box office was only a little more than ERAGON did last week, but its national attendance since Thursday was more than 200,000 bigger. Just another sign of how tastes differ between Seoul and the countryside in Korea.

The restored print of ROBOT TAEKWON V made its debut in eighth (well, almost debut, since it was first screened at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2005). Not great, but not bad for a 30-year-old movie that most people already now. In fact, if you look at the nationwide numbers, it opened in fifth (same effect as MAPADO 2). Incidentally, the nice people at RTV's production company rediscovered the English subtitles for the movie, so the next time it comes out on DVD, it should include them.

Michel Gondry's SCIENCE OF SLEEP may be all the way down at No. 17 last weekend, but the film has now sold just over 40,000 tickets, or a little over $425,000. Not bad for an odd little film on so few screens. And the Japanese film HONEY AND CLOVER has now sold over 32,000 tickets.

This Week	Title........................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Attendance (Seoul only)	Total Attendance
1.	Mapado 2	1.18	385	110,000	737,000
2.	200-Pound Beauty	12.14	262	101,400	5,718,700
3.	Herb	1.11	275	80,000	951,800
4.	Deja Vu	1.11	182	69,000	583,500
5.	Eragon	1.11	239	57,600	867,800
6.	Blood Diamond	1.11	120	42,600	338,100
7.	Night at the Museum	12.21	196	42,300	4,476,200
8.	Robot Taekwon V	1.18	209	41,800	230,100
9.	Deathnote: The Last Name	1.11	200	25,900	546,100
10.	Barnyard	1.18	110	19,000	82,000

(Source: Film2.0)