NOTES ON ENTERTAINMENT, CULTURE AND MORE FROM KOREA (OR WHEREVER)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Korea Weekend Box Office - May 2-4

IRON MAN kicked some pretty serious tail in Korea. Paramount claimed $7.5 million, but KOBIS says closer to $8.0 million. Either way, it was one of the strongest openings in ages. Since D-WAR, maybe?

The official English name of BEASTIE BOYS is actually MOONLIGHT IN SEOUL. But I hate the thought of giving an English name to a movie that already has an English name, so I am calling it BEASTIE BOYS. At any rate, this is the latest film by Yoon Jong-bin, the guy who made UNFORGIVEN a couple of years ago.

Pretty cool to see DETECTIVE CONAN do so well. Considering it was a six-year-old film and was on just 25 screens (the KOBIS report I use tends to overestimate screen counts), $210,000 was not bad.

Korean films are now down to 47.8 percent of the year's box office, by the way. The big question is, how low will they go over the next couple of months? Some people think below 30 percent is possible. I think that is overly negative, but things will almost definitely not be pretty.

This WeekTitle............................................Release DateScreens NationwideWeekend Revenue (bil. won)Total Revenue (bil. won)
1.Iron Man 4.306585.587.99
2.Beastie Boys - Korean 4.303531.301.95
3.Taken 4.093491.1511.52
4.Forbidden Kingdom 4.243790.995.55
5. Horton Hears a Who 4.304320.921.21
6.Tale of the Legendary Libido (Garujigi - Korean) 4.303670.550.96
7.Detective Conan: Phantom of Baker Street 5.01490.170.21
8.Bucket List 4.09810.111.59
9.The Chaser (Chugyeokja - Korean) 2.14420.03633.83
10.Street Kings 4.171110.0301.75
(Source: KOBIS - Figures represent 97% of nationwide box office)

No comments: