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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.04.24 ~ 2015.04.26

Mind the Gap: The "Avengers" return to ruin…

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Crumbs. That's what Marvel's monster left for the rest of the pack over the weekend, crumbs.

Its pre-sales were brilliant, over a million, and a million more stormed cinemas across the country to catch the heroes' phenomenal return (as well as to catch South Korean model-turned-actress Claudia Kim make her movie debut as a support character). The hype building up to its release made the weekend's landslide no surprise, but the furiosity of the frenzy was still a sight to behold as "Avengers: Age of Ultron" affected a perfect cinematic storm.

The latest in Marvel's "Avengers" series was seen by nearly 3 million filmgoers, and banked over $23 million in sales from the weekend alone (its total tally is currently 3.3 million, or $28 million). In other words, the film's opening in South Korea was enough to pay for a tenth of the film's production costs, a figure reported to be around $280 million.

As far as South Korean benchmarks go, the film has already trumpeted "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" in terms of pre-sales, but is setting new records now with its stellar first weekend (its $23 million constituted over 90% of the box office pie), and is expected to easily hit 10 million admissions: the unofficially, and relatively recent, milestone set for booming blockbusters in South Korea. Currently, "The Admiral: Roaring Current" (17.6 million) and, even more recently, "Ode to My Father" (14.2 million) currently stand as South Korea's most popular pictures.

Last weekend it was "Furious 7" that was enjoying an uncontested pole position. This week, however, it sat sorrily in second with just over 100K (3.2%) attending the funeral. Similarly, Kang Je-gyu's family drama "Salut D'Amour" was also forced to be content with the meek 86K (2.4%) it attracted; in fact, this weekend's report was an obvious loss for the majority of pictured hopefuls, particularly those new releases.

Jo Chi-eon's debut "Clown of a Salesman" (20K - 0.5%), for example, had the untimely luck of entering the fray when there were no prisoners being taken. The French drama "The Finishers" (11K - 0.3%) too time its jump poorly. All in all, and as you can imagine, in a battle that was so decisively won, avoiding directing words towards the slain seems almost humane.

 

Last weekend's report: [HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.04.17 ~ 2015.04.19

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.04.24 - 2015.04.26 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Avengers: Age of Ultron"   2 819 112 3 444 800
2 "Furious 7"   106 982 3 131 033
3 "Salut D'Amour" (장수상회) 2015/04/09 86 160 1 001 313
4 "Crayon Shin-chan: Serious Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back" (映画クレヨンしんちゃん ガチンコ!逆襲のロボとーちゃん)
  49 709 52 457
5 "Clown of a Salesman" (약장수) 2015/04/23 20 350 27 559
6 "Twenty" (스물) 2015/03/25 16 969 3 031 483
7 "The Finishers" (De toutes nos forces)   11 481 23 487
8 "Kingsman: The Secret Service"   4 413 6 126 033
9 "Whiplash"   2 863 1 576 247
10 "Revivre" (화장) 2015/04/09 2 586 137 672
Korean movies only  
  "Enemies In-Law" (위험한 상견례 2) 2015/04/30 608 1 572
  "Glittering Hands" (반짝이는 박수 소리) 2015/04/23 479 1 251
  "Ode to My Father" (국제시장) 2014/12/17 453 14 254 955
  "The Admiral's Path" (명량: 장군의 길) 2015/05/07 221 2 626
  "Foulball" (파울볼) 2015/04/02 206 30 526
  "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant" (허삼관) 2015/01/15 168 955 374
  "Strangers on the Field" (그라운드의 이방인) 2015/03/19 136 3 730
  "Illusionary Paradise" (부곡 하와이) 2015/04/30 136 136
  "Apostle" (신이 보낸 사람) 2014/02/13 125 424 383
  "My Dictator" (나의 독재자) 2014/10/30 120 386 054

 

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)

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