Korea Weekend Box Office - Nov. 30-Dec. 2

Not a very exciting box office this week. Although I was rather surprised to see the top spot go to AUGUST RUSH, an odd-looking melodrama out of Hollywood in which CJ Entertainment invested. I guess I was watching the wrong TV channels because I did not see a No. 1 opening coming at all. If I were a better blogger, I would check out Cine 21 or some other movie website to see what kind of feedback the film was getting from audiences... but I'm not, so I won't.

In case you are curious, RUSH's box office was about $1.7 million over the weekend, for a total of around $2.1 million.

Just to show how off-based my thinking was, if I were to have guessed from advertising and general stories, I might have predicted a big opening for MY ELEVENTH MOTHER. But it opened only in sixth. Even OUR TOWN opened better.

SEVEN DAYS is continuing to do fairly well, landing in No. 2 this weekend.

Rather amazingly, LUST CAUTION is still in third, after four weeks. Ang Lee's sexy film just keeps on chugging here in Korea, having earned a little over $10 million. Not bad considering it has made just $4.3 million in the United States (since September). In case you are interested, LUST's top territory so far has been China, where it has made $15 million, with $6 million in Hong Kong and $4 million in Taiwan.

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Attendance	Total Attendance
1.	August Rush	11.29	321	242,879	301,625
2.	Seven Days (Korean)	11.14	307	220,615	1,284,500
3.	Lust, Caution	11.08	258	136,383	1,359,072
4.	Le Grand Chef (Sikkaek - Korean	11.01	321	122,490	2,662,777
5.	Our Town (Uri Dongne - Korean)	11.29	276	117,008	147,873
6.	My Eleventh Mother (Yeolhanbeonjjae Eomma - Korean)	11.29	260	89,516	129,503
7.	Hitman	11.29	173	56,841	68,396
8.	Beowulf	11.14	221	40,019	911,148
9.	Michael Clayton	11.29	160	38,190	51,825
10.	Saw 4	11.22	200	18,571	238,051

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

Oh, last week I forgot to mention the John Cho film WEST 32ND, which opened Nov. 22. But not really my fault, since the film was on just 22 screens and never even approached the top 10. It opened in 17th, then dropped to 25th this week, for a grant total of about $54,000. Despite some decent talent being attached to the film (including Grace Park in a small role), the movie was remarkably dull... You are not missing a hidden gem.