Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.11.20 ~ 2015.11.22

"Inside Men" dislodges "The Priests" for first...

Advertisement

After three weeks at the top of the pile, Jang Jae-hyeon's mystery drama "The Priests" has given way to Woo Min-ho's third feature, "Inside Men". Last weekend "The Priests" topped the chart by claiming over a million admissions (47%), but in the wake of the release of Woo's new thriller, Jang's popular flick slipped to second with 487 thousand admissions (20%). Since its release early November, "The Priests" (starring Kim Yun-seok and Gang Dong-won) has attracted over 4.4 million filmgoers and banked over $30 million in the process.

The new number one, "Inside Men" (aka "The Insiders"), was released in Korea last Thursday, and from the 1,000+ screens it was allocated, the film attracted 1.2 million; around 53% of the box office pie. This political thriller stars Lee Byung-hun, Cho Seung-woo, and Baek Yoon-sik in a high-stakes political game for the presidential office that challenges the freedom of the press with scandalous power politics. In third place entered another new release, the much-anticipated final act in the "The Hunger Games" series of films: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2". From 661 screens, the film attracted the interest of 330 thousand filmgoers around the country to capture 13% of the box office pie; world-wide, "Mockingjay - Part 2" has already grossed over $247 million and counting.

"Spectre" hit Korean screens last weekend where is settle in second with 37%; week two for the latest Bond film, however, saw it bumped down to fourth with 211 thousand admissions (8.7%). From fifth place onwards the total admissions tallies fell significantly, starting with the re-release of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in fifth that only managed 30,775 admissions (1.3%). Peter Cousens's "Freedom" (starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and William Sadler) faired poorly in sixth place having claimed just 24,614 (1%) and was followed by the Chinese animation "Frog Kingdom" with 13.8 thousand.

Ridley Scott's adaptation of Andy Weir's novel "The Martian" is still with us in seventh place. "The Martian" has been in the charts for over a month now, and during its time in Korea this sci-fi epic has grossed $34.1 million in Korea alone, and around $486.4 million worldwide. The film is slowly slipping down the chart, however (last weekend it help third), and this past weekend it managed just 10 thousand admissions. Close behind Scott's latest was the Japanese animation "The Idolmaster Movie" with just under 8.5 thousand stubs sold, and the last film to make it into South Korea's top ten over the weekend was the American comedy drama "The Intern" by Nancy Meyers. "The Intern" has proven to be a popular choice in Korea and has managed to stick around the charts for two months. Since its released late September, "The Intern" has grossed $24.5 million in Korea and $183 million worldwide.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.11.20 - 2015.11.22 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Inside Men" (내부자들) 2015/11/19 1 261 115 1 606 131
2 "The Priests" (검은 사제들) 2015/11/05 487 686 4 448 734
3 "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2"   330 954 438 699
4 "Spectre"   211 473 1 662 932
5 "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"   30 775 373 445
6 "Freedom"   24 614 35 221
7 "The Frog Kingdom" (青蛙王國)   13 825 42 548
8 "The Martian"   10 375 4 872 787
9 "The Idolmaster Movie: Beyond the Brilliant Future!" (輝きの向こう側へ!)   8 429 10 705
10 "The Intern"   5 606 3 602 936
Korean movies only  
  "Kuru Kuru and Friends: The Rainbow Tree Forest" (꾸루꾸루와 친구들: 무지개 나무의 숲) 2015/11/19 5 171 5 397
  "Wonderful Nightmare" (미쓰 와이프) 2015/08/13 1 615 986 564
  "Fatal Intuition" (그 놈이다) 2015/10/28 1 242 1 045 219
  "The Throne" (사도) 2015/09/16 692 6 245 324
  "COLLECTIVE INVENTION" (돌연변이) 2015/10/22 594 99 882
  "You Call It Passion" (열정 같은 소리 하고 있네) 2015/11/25 536 5 179
  "Right Now, Wrong Then" (지금은맞고그때는틀리다) 2015/09/24 329 78 498
  "Old Bicycle" (늙은 자전거) 2015/11/12 307 2 492
  "Yong Joo-gol (용주골)"   274 306
  "Love Never Fails" (사랑이 이긴다) 2015/09/10 222 15 146

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)

❎ Try Ad-free