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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.02.03 ~ 2017.02.05

"Arrival" lands in third; "Confidential Assignment" and "The King" remain unmoved...

"Arrival", an American adaptation of Ted Chiang's 1998 short story, "Story of Your Life", was the highest new entry this week, but the 298,665 admissions (13.05%) it claimed was not enough to prevent two local flicks from scoring another big one-two finish.

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Kim Seong-hoon-III's "Confidential Assignment" and Han Jae-rim's "The King" have occupied the top two spots for three weeks now; the former led the last two weeks, and with the 1,047,947 admissions it claimed here (roughly 45.64% of the sales), Kim's latest's new bottom line moves to $44.8 million (6.2 million)-it's the highest-grossing Korean film of the year.

"The King", starring Zo In-sung and Jung Woo-sung, since losing pole position two weeks ago, managed to perform well in second: despite a loss of around 300 screens, "The King" attracted 17.79% of the sales (409,364 admissions) and is now on the verge of 5 million admissions. While "Confidential Assignment" was able to capture roughly the same percentage of the pie compared to last weekend, "The King"'s share of the sales dipped from 30% (1.24 million) to 17.8%.

Two Oscar-nominated films from America were up next: Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival" (eight nominations) and "Moana" (Best Animated Feature) occupied third and fourth respectively, with the latter hitting the 2-million admission mark thanks to the 171,480 (7%) it attracted over the weekend. This is the fourth week for Disney's "Moana" in Korea and so far Disney's 56th animated feature film has grossed $2.1 million; worldwide, this 3D computer animation has banked $553.3 million (it cost $150 million to produce).

The last film in the Resident Evil film series, "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter", directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich, fell one place to fifth with 110,006 admissions (4.96%), followed by Makoto Shinkai's phenomenal picture, "Your Name". Shinkai's romantic fantasy had its premiere at the Anime Expo back in July 2016 and started screening in Japan a month-and-half later, but its international release quickly saw it become the highest-grossing anime film worldwide ($330 million, surpassing "Spirited Away"'s $289 million). With the 69,035 admissions it scored over the weekend, "Your Name"'s total tally in Korea now moves onto 3.5 million ($24.9 million).

"La La Land', by Damien Chazelle, won big at 74th Golden Globes (a record-breaking seven wins) and it's nominated in fourteen categories for the upcoming Oscars (another record). Since arriving in Korea back in early December, Chazelle's romantic musical has become somewhat of a permanent feature in the charts; this is the first time in weeks that it's dropped from sixth place, and with the 35,893 it claimed here, "La La Lands" total gross in Korea is now $24.4 million (3.2 million admissions).

The only other new entry was a debut drama by Garth Davis. Like "Arrival", "Lion" is an adaptation, this time of a non-fiction book by Saroo Brierley and Larry Buttrose, "A Long Way Home". The debutant's efforts have also been recognised by the Academy: "Lion" has six nominations including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. And its first weekend out in Korea yielded 35,356 admissions ($414,500).

"The Lego Batman Movie", a spinoff of "The Lego Movie" by Chris McKay, officially gets released this coming Thursday, but a few screens were open (279) where DC's Legolized hero managed to snatch 28,742 admissions (1.22%). ("The Lego Batman Movie" had its premiere in Dublin late last month and opens in America a day after Korea, February 10.) The final spot in the chart fell to Hong Heon-pyo's 72-minute animation, "Turning Mecard W: The Revival of Black Mirror". This action-packed picture added 18,729 stubs and moved its bottom line to $2.75 million (422,853 admissions).

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2017.02.03 - 2017.02.05 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Confidential Assignment" (공조) 2017/01/18 1 048 401 6 272 505
2 "The King" (더 킹) 2017/01/18 409 662 4 991 122
3 "Arrival"   298 930 358 344
4 "Moana"   171 495 2 146 086
5 "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter"   110 264 708 007
6 "Your Name" (君の名は。)   69 058 3 554 668
7 "La La Land"   35 921 3 210 524
8 "Lion"   35 389 59 441
9 "The Lego Batman Movie"   28 742 29 582
10 "Turning Mecard W: The Revival of Black Mirror" (터닝메카드W: 블랙미러의 부활) 2017/01/18 18 733 422 857
Korean movies only  
  "Le Tour: My Last 49 Days" (뚜르: 내 생애 최고의 49일) 2017/02/01 6 116 20 203
  "Master" (마스터) 2016/12/21 759 7 145 523
  "Fabricated City" (조작된 도시) 2017/02/09 750 7 021
  "Misbehavior" (여교사) 2017/01/04 421 117 180
  "Garak Market Revolution" (장기왕: 가락시장 레볼루션) 2017/02/02 379 647
  "Pandora" (판도라) 2016/12/07 175 4 583 155
  "Moon Young" (문영) 2017/01/12 154 7 010
  "Love Me Once Again" (1968, 미워도 다시 한번) - Re-release   150 6 760
  "Because I Love You" (사랑하기 때문에) 2017/01/04 104 340 766
  "Weekends" (위켄즈) 2016/12/22 90 4 436

- Chris Wheeler

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