[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.01.06 ~ 2017.01.08
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Japanese anime "Your Name" enters in pole position...
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For the first time in over a decade, a Japanese anime has entered at the top of the South Korean box office. Makoto Shinkai's fantasy romance anime "Your Name" (based on Shinkai's own novel of the same name) officially opened on Wednesday after becoming the second-highest grossing anime film in Japan late last year where it banked over $288 million (Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", the highest-grossing anime, sits on $289 million). From 944 screens, "Your Name" captured 31.3% of the sales (832,040 admissions) to dislodge last weekend's number one, Cho Ui-seok's crime flick "Master".
After "Make It Big" (2002), "The World of Silence" (2006) and "Cold Eyes" (2013), "Master" is Jo's fourth film and stars Lee Byung-hun, Gang Dong-won and Kim Woo-bin. The film opened its account last weekend in pole position with 1.37 million admissions (43.9%), but during its second weekend out Jo's crime drama was only able to add another 558,709 admissions (21.5%), moving its total tally now to 6.5 million ($44.2 million).
Morten Tyldum's "Passengers" (starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt), a science fiction adventure film from America, arrived on Wednesday to 603 screens around the country; it captured 13.3% (349,120 admissions). "Passengers" has received mixed reviews so far and has recouped $131.6 million from the $110 million it took to produce (the film has been out in America since mid-December). The 3D computer-animated musical "Sing" was up next, down one position to fourth from last weekend's podium finish. With the 183,298 admissions "Sing" claimed over the weekend, 6.5% of the sales, the film's new total in Korea moves onto 1.5 million, or $10.2 million.
The third installment of the Russian "Snow Queen" series of animated films, "The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice" by Aleksey Tsitsilin, recently arrived in Korea and managed 170,477 admissions (6%) during its opening weekend, followed by a new local release, Joo Ji-hong's "Because I Love You" (starring Cha Tae-hyun). This is Joo's sophomore film after his 2009 melodrama drama "Maybe" (5,964 admissions), and from the 537 screens allocated, it attracted 5.4% of the sales (145,552 admissions). The critically acclaimed romantic musical from Damien Chazelle, "La La Land", stumbled to seventh from fourth with the 118,969 stubs (4.7%) it scored. "La La Land" (which recently won no less than six Golden Globe awards) has been active in Korea's charts since early December; its bottom line in Korea is now $19.1 million (2.7 million admissions).
South Korean cinephiles have not embraced the latest "Star Wars" film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". Despite entering in second place just before New Years with 523,428 admissions (18%), Lucasfilm's latest plummeted to eighth here with only 90,660 (4.2%); the film is currently around 21,500 admissions short of a million admissions. Park Jeong-woo's "Pandora" was a timely release given the temperature of Korea's current political climate; the film has been out since December 7, and with the 53,744 admissions it claimed over the past weekend, Park's fourth feature has grossed $29.9 million (4.5 million admissions). The final spot in this week's top ten went to Kim Tae-yong-I's new drama: "Misbehavior" (formerly known as "Schoolmistress") starring Kim Ha-neul and Yoo In-young. Kim's fifth film's first weekend had 392 screens to pool from and from them captured 1.8% of the sales (46,355 admissions).
Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2017.01.06 - 2017.01.08 (www.kobis.or.kr)
| # | Films | Release date | Week-end | Total |
| 1 | "Your Name. " (君の名は。) | 837 556 | 1 182 249 | |
| 2 | "Master" (마스터) | 2016/12/21 | 562 102 | 6 515 891 |
| 3 | "Passengers" | 351 022 | 504 396 | |
| 4 | "Sing" | 183 357 | 1 589 090 | |
| 5 | "The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice" | 170 476 | 241 875 | |
| 6 | "Because I Love You" (사랑하기 때문에) | 2017/01/04 | 146 197 | 246 230 |
| 7 | "La La Land" | 119 671 | 2 726 599 | |
| 8 | "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" | 91 139 | 978 975 | |
| 9 | "Pandora" (판도라) | 2016/12/07 | 54 060 | 4 545 251 |
| 10 | "Misbehavior" (여교사) | 2017/01/04 | 46 903 | 86 414 |
| Korean movies only | ||||
| "Will You Be There" (당신, 거기 있어줄래요) | 2016/12/14 | 2 854 | 1 167 243 | |
| "Obedience" (순종) | 2016/11/17 | 519 | 55 293 | |
| "Weekends" (위켄즈) | 2016/12/22 | 390 | 3 027 | |
| "The King" (더 킹) | 2017/01/18 | 274 | 274 | |
| "Chilsu and Mansu" (칠수와 만수, 1988) - Re-release | 265 | 321 | ||
| "Moo-hyun, the Story of Two Cities" (무현, 두 도시 이야기) | 2016/10/26 | 231 | 193 036 | |
| "Don't Worry" (걱정말아요) | 2017/01/05 | 187 | 429 | |
| "Vroom! Vroom! : Spider's Adventure Diary" (부릉! 부릉! 브루미즈: 스피더의 모험 일기) | 2016/12/15 | 146 | 10 489 | |
| "Prince Daewon" (대원군, 1968) - Re-release | 124 | 1 617 | ||
| "Our Love Story" (연애담) | 2016/11/17 | 94 | 22 587 | |
- C.J. Wheeler