[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.09.30 ~ 2016.10.02
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"The Age of Shadows" falls to "The City of Madness"...
Kim Seong-su's fourth film, "Asura: The City of Madness", arrived at the end of last month and has risen to the top of Korea's box office during the first weekend of October. The film, which stars Jung Woo-sung, Hwang Jung-min, Ju Ji-hoon and Kwak Do-won, captured 43.8% of the box office pie (1 million admissions from 1,278 screens) to claim the top spot from last weekend's winner, Korea's official Oscar submission, "The Age of Shadows".
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Kim Jee-woon's spy film may have enjoyed three straight weeks as Korea's number one prior to October, but week four for the country's Oscar hopeful saw it slipped four places in light of Kim Seong-su's latest and a string of foreign flicks that includes: Tim Burton's adaptation of Ransom Riggs's 2011 novel, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"; "Bridget Jones's Baby", the sequel to the popular 2004 film; and Clint Eastwood's biopic "Sully" (based on the life-saving acts of Captain Chesley Sullenberger).
Tim Burton's new film, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", arrived in Korea on 28 September and was allocated 810 screens for its first weekend out. It attracted 594,724 admissions (23.5%), roughly $4.4 million; worldwide, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" has grossed around $152 million having been produced for an estimated $110 million. The novel on which the film is based was also Ransom Riggs's debut and remained a New York Times best seller for 45 weeks after its release mid-2011.
The romantic comedy "Bridget Jones's Baby" features actress Renée Zellweger alongside Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey and its first official week out in Korea yielded 208,129 admissions (8.4%) from 509 screens. Not far behind Sharon Maguire's sequel came Clint Eastwood's biographical film "Sully". "Sully" was released in America at the beginning of September and has since banked over $132 million; in Korea, the film has thus far amassed $2.2 million (293,293 admissions), 185,763 of which came from this past weekend.
Last weekend's number one, Korea's official submission to the Oscars, "The Age of Shadows" (with Song Kang-ho, Gong Yoo and Han Ji-min) added 181,364 admissions (7%) to bring its total tally now to 7.2 million ($54 million). "The Age of Shadows" is currently the fourth highest-grossing film of the year released in Korea behind "Captain America: Civil War" (8.6 million admissions), "A Violent Prosecutor" (9.7 million), and "Train to Busan" (11.5 million).
Critics and filmgoers have been largely unimpressed with Timur Bekmambetov's reimagining of "Ben-Hur". For the past two weeks the film has occupied second place just behind "The Age of Shadows"-last weekend the film captured 15.8% of the sales (194,917 admissions)-but the Bekmambetov's film has struggled in Korea, too, and its third week out yielded just 41,434 additional admissions (1.6%).
The American animated feature "Pete's Dragon" by David Lowery was next with 34,850 admissions (1.7%), followed by another American film, Fede Alvarez's horror "Don't Breathe" starring Jane Levy (29,450 admissions: 1.2%). The bottom of the top ten was quiet enough to allow the fourth season of the British Children's television series "The Octonauts" to claim eight with 22,960 admissions (>1%), followed by the Chinese animation "Snow White: The Mysterious Father" with 22,364 admissions (>1%).
Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.09.30 - 2016.10.02 (www.kobis.or.kr)
| # | Films | Release date | Week-end | Total |
| 1 | "Asura: The City of Madness" (아수라) | 2016/09/28 | 1 068 591 | 1 803 294 |
| 2 | "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" | 595 701 | 742 545 | |
| 3 | "Bridget Jones's Baby" | 208 082 | 333 898 | |
| 4 | "Sully" | 185 743 | 293 273 | |
| 5 | "The Age of Shadows" (밀정) | 2016/09/07 | 181 364 | 7 292 686 |
| 6 | "Ben-Hur" | 41 436 | 1 343 034 | |
| 7 | "Pete's Dragon" | 34 840 | 39 784 | |
| 8 | "Don't Breathe" | 29 450 | 33 809 | |
| 9 | "OCTONAUTS Season 4" (바다 탐험대 옥토넛 시즌4: 늪지탐험선K) | 22 960 | 25 457 | |
| 10 | "Snow White: The Mysterious Father" | 22 364 | 23 703 | |
| Korean movies only | ||||
| "Luck.Key" (럭키) | 2016/10/13 | 4 407 | 9 584 | |
| "Bringing Tibet Home" (브링 홈 아버지의 땅) | 2016/09/01 | 4 010 | 14 592 | |
| "The Map Against the World" (고산자, 대동여지도) | 2016/09/07 | 2 305 | 969 032 | |
| "Spy Nation" (자백) | 2016/10/13 | 1 931 | 14 517 | |
| "Breathing Underwater" (물숨) | 2016/09/29 | 1 412 | 4 405 | |
| "Moonlight Palace" (달빛궁궐) | 2016/09/07 | 1 021 | 149 547 | |
| "Dear Grandma" (할머니의 먼 집) | 2016/09/29 | 455 | 1 145 | |
| "Worst Woman" (최악의 하루) | 2016/08/25 | 437 | 79 976 | |
| "Duel: Final Round" (대결) | 2016/09/22 | 386 | 30 504 | |
| "The Last Tea Cup" (마지막 찻잔, 1979) - Re-release | 210 | 2 178 | ||