[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2018.03.23 - 2018.03.25
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"Pacific Rim" sequel narrowly outplays local drama "Be with You"...
Director Steven S. DeKnight's "Pacific Rim: Uprising", the sequel to Guillermo del Toro's 2013 kaiju blockbuster, entered the fray last Wednesday and came out ahead of last week's number one, "Be with You". From 1,143 screens, "Uprising" topped the chart with $5.2 million from 655,193 admissions (39.76%). The fantasy melodrama "Be with You" (starring So Ji-sub and Son Ye-jin), director Lee Jang-hoon-I's debut, had 57 more screens to pool from, but the 577,032 admissions (33.88%) it walked away with at the end of the weekend were not enough to secure a second straight week at the top.
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The top two films this week captured just under 74% of the total weekend sales, with Lee Chang-hee's "The Vanished" (which, like DeKinght's "Uprising" and Lee's "Be with You", is also his debut feature film) coming in third with just 92,630 (5.38%). Since its release three week's ago when it entered in first, "The Vanished" has grossed $9.7 million from 1.2 million admissions.
Two other local films followed: Yim Soon-rye's "Little Forest", an adaptation of a Japanese comic by Iragashi Daiske, and Jeong Beom-sik's new mystery horror, "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum". "Little Forest" claimed 3.51% of the sales (60,177 admissions), moving its total tally to 1.4 million ($10.7 million), and "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" was not far behind with 54,780 (2.96%) from just 153 screens, which gets officially released nationwide later this week.
"Mini Special Forces X", a 68-minute animation by Lee Yeong-joon, whose plot resembles this week's number one (i.e. mech vs. aliens), entered in sixth with 50,731 admissions from 458 screens. It was followed by the award-winning coming-of-age drama "Call Me by Your Name" (based on André Acima's 2007 novel of the same name) From 190 screens, director Luca Guadagnino's adaptation banked $375,098 admissions (2.85%) during its first weekend out from 46,088 admissions. The film, which won Best Adapted Screenplay at this year's Oscars, was made for $3.5 million and, since its released in American last November, it's grossed more than ten times that amount worldwide.
"Cheese in the Trap - Movie", Kim Je-yeong's third feature after "Queen of the Night" (2013) and "So I Married An Anti-Fan" (2016), fell three places from fifth; with the 31,826 stubs (1.92%) it claimed here, its second weekend out, "Cheese in the Trap - Movie" has now earned $1.6 million (220,589 admissions). Martin McDonagh's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" was nominated in seven categories at the Oscars and won Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell). Its second weekend out in Korea yielded 18,566 admissions (1.13%) from just 88 screens. The final place fell to "Microhabitat" starring Esom, the directing and screenwriting debut of Jeon Go-woon. "Microhabitat" scored just under a percent of the total sales (16,709 admissions, or $131,378) from 261 screens.
Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2018.03.23 - 2018.03.25 (www.kobis.or.kr)
| # | Films | Release date | Week-end | Total |
| 1 | "Pacific Rim: Uprising" | 655 042 | 858 080 | |
| 2 | "Be with You" (지금 만나러 갑니다) | 2018/03/14 | 576 981 | 1 823 620 |
| 3 | "The Vanished" (사라진 밤) | 2018/03/07 | 92 630 | 1 287 968 |
| 4 | "Little Forest" (리틀 포레스트) | 2018/02/28 | 60 162 | 1 466 127 |
| 5 | "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" (곤지암) | 2018/03/28 | 54 780 | 67 929 |
| 6 | "Mini Special Forces X" | 50 731 | 53 839 | |
| 7 | "Call Me by Your Name" | 46 066 | 67 195 | |
| 8 | "Cheese in the Trap - Movie" (치즈인더트랩) | 2018/03/14 | 31 827 | 220 589 |
| 9 | "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" | 18 560 | 76 312 | |
| 10 | "Microhabitat" (소공녀) | 2018/03/22 | 16 695 | 22 482 |
| Korean movies only | ||||
| "Seven Years of Night" (7년의 밤) | 2018/03/28 | 2 662 | 4 302 | |
| "A Field Day" (운동회) | 2018/03/22 | 2 306 | 2 930 | |
| "The Princess and the Matchmaker" (궁합) | 2018/02/28 | 2 225 | 1 338 357 | |
| "SECHSKIES Eighteen" (젝스키스 에이틴) | 2018/01/18 | 1 221 | 50 038 | |
| "Memories of Murder" (살인의 추억) | 2003/04/25 | 568 | 3 833 | |
| "Notebook from My Mother" (엄마의 공책) | 2018/03/15 | 562 | 6 291 | |
| "Oldboy" (올드보이) | 2003/11/21 | 522 | 309 918 | |
| "Singing with Angry Bird" (바나나쏭의 기적) | 2018/03/08 | 270 | 8 644 | |
| "Gate" (게이트) | 2018/02/28 | 253 | 100 815 | |
| "Pororo, Dinosaur Island Adventure" (뽀로로 극장판 공룡섬 대모험) | 2017/12/07 | 244 | 826 758 | |
– Christopher Wheeler