Korea Weekend Box Office - Dec. 14-16

Some strange goings-on with the top-10 this week. When KOBIS published the weekend numbers on Monday morning, they were obviously really low. I AM LEGEND, for example, was listed as doing about half of what its true business was. Turns out that there were some computer problems and a bunch of theaters had not reported their weekend business.

Apparently the Monday KOBIS numbers are always preliminary, and final figures are not confirmed until Tuesday. I did not know that. I hope I have not posted any wrong box office figures here in past weeks.

Anyhow, big weekend for Will Smith's I AM LEGEND. Kind of funny, considering how no one I know who saw the film liked it. Score one for Warner Bros' marketing team. LEGEND had $6.5 million, including its early Wednesday opening (true weekend numbers were closer to $5 million).

I was surprised LEGEND outperformed both SEX IS ZERO 2 and THE FIGHT. Was sure at least one of those would be a breakout hit. As it turns out, SEX IS ZERO 2 was the big Korean film over the weekend... a fact I find endlessly distressing. No, I have not seen it yet, but the original SEX IS ZERO was such a miserable film, I am disappointed people went back for more punishment.

THE FIGHT opened only in fourth, which had to have been disappointing to its distributor. It felt like I have seen ads for this film every five minutes on TV here. (SEX IS ZERO 2, on the other hand, was pretty much invisible, at least on the channels I watch).

Kind of cool to see KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE in the top ten, especially since that movie was released a few weeks ago. Are all of Hayao Miyazaki's old films going to be periodically rereleased in Korean theaters, like Disney's film used to be when I was growing up? It would be cool is young people had the opportunity to see his films in the theater.

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Attendance	Total Attendance
1.	I Am Legend	12.12	486	678,619	918,396
2.	Sex Is Zero 2 (Saekjeuk Sigong Sijeun 2 - Korean)	12.12	440	439,031	584,284
3.	August Rush	11.29	314	239,645	1,336,512
4.	The Fight (Ssaum - Korean)	12.13	396	164,750	236,328
5.	Seven Days (Korean)	11.14	243	97,629	1,932,717
6.	Lust, Caution	11.08	200	69,467	1,821,731
7.	Hairspray	12.06	215	56,117	294,936
8.	Le Grand Chef (Sikkaek - Korean)	11.01	115	25,057	2,969,549
9.	Kiki's Delivery Service	11.22	38	7,500	23,716
10.	My Eleventh Mother (Yeolhanbeonjjae Eomma - Korean)	11.29	46	6,275	333,337

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