Korea Weekend Box Office - May 18-20

SPIDER-MAN 3 was on top again this week (raising its total take to $31.4 million), no great surprise there. But it is definitely losing steam, now accounting for 31.9% of the box office. Two films are closing the gap, with over 22% of admissions each.

SHREK 3 does not open until June (to sync with the local school schedule), so that behemoth did not challenge Spidey here last weekend... But PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3: WORLD'S END should provide strong competition when it opens Wednesday.

In the meantime, No. 2 was UNSTOPPABLE MARRIAGE again, with 0% dropoff from last weekend (at least in Seoul). That is right, it sold 86,700 tickets in its opening weekend in Seoul and the exact same last weekend. That is rather impressive, and good counter-programming by Lotte Entertainment (its distributor).

After the strong showing by Ken Watanabe's MEMORIES OF TOMORROW a week ago, I was surprised to see another Japanese film, TEARS FOR YOU, do much better this weekend. Over 89,000 admissions already (about $600,000). In fact, in just three days, it lapped MEMORIES OF TOMORROW (now with 83,000 admissions). TEARS FOR YOU was something of a surprise hit last fall in Japan, earning just over $30 million there, making it the ninth biggest Japanese movie of 2006.

This Week	Title........................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Attendance (Seoul only)	Total Attendance
1.	Spider-Man 3	5.01	627	122,500	4,577,000
2.	Unstoppable Marriage	5.10	315	86,700	1.008,500
3.	Next	5.17	140	85,000	259,000
4.	Tears for You	5.17	136	26,600	89,200
5.	Paradise Murdered	4.12	196	13,800	2,244,100
6.	My Son	5.01	235	11,300	478,300
7.	Shooter	4.26	82	11,000	478,300
8.	Sorrow Even up in Heaven	5.17	83	10,000	29,200
9.	The Reaping	4.19	75	7,800	697,700
10.	Memories of Tomorrow	5.10	95	7,100	83,000

(Source: Film2.0)

Actually, MEMORIES OF TOMORROW was in 11th, according to the official KOBIS chart. But the No. 10 film was not really a film at all, it was some sort of promotional event for the On Style cable TV station. I guess FILM 2.0 does not count such things.

BREATH, Kim Ki-duk's latest film, was waaaaaay down in 31st. It is one of the films in competition at Cannes, and so far it has gotten pretty good reviews in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and VARIETY, although not enough to register on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic (as I write this, anyhow).

The other Korean film in competition at Cannes, SECRET SUNSHINE, does not open in Korea until Wednesday.