Showing posts with label sherlock holmes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sherlock holmes. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2012

Korean Box Office Update (01/06-01/08, 2012)

MI4 Takes Fourth Victory Lap, Closes in on Record



Title Release Date Weekend Total
1 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (us) 12/15/11 477,851 6,243,796
2 Wonderful Radio 1/5/12 281,296 334,855
3 Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (us) 12/21/11 223,500 1,862,606
4 Perfect Game 12/21/11 133,580 1,155,313
5 Friends: Naki on Monster Island (jp) 12/29/11 118,342 407,958
6 My Way 12/21/11 112,905 2,002,323
7 The Darkest Hour (us) 1/5/12 82,684 98,450
8 Lion King 3D (us) 7/9/94 46,257 270,993
9 Spellbound 12/1/11 46,231 2,945,469
10 Pokemon: White - Victini and Zekrom (jp) 12/22/11 30,116 345,153
- My Barefoot Friend 12/15/11 378 2,970
- Bleak Night 3/3/11 139 22,350
- Green Days 6/23/11 120 51,195
- King of Pigs 11/3/11 118 18,782
- Jam Docu KANGJUNG 12/22/11 68 502


Local business had another tough frame with only one midlevel opening and diminishing returns from holdovers as Hollywood continued to trump domestic offerings.  1.62 million tickets were sold this past weekend, a marginal increase of last year's comparable weekend whereas the Korean film market share was down to 35% from 75%.

Mission Impossible IV continued its remarkable run, banking another 477,851 admissions, though that was down a little over 50%.  With 6,243,796 tickets sold to date it's still another 1.5 million away from Transformers 3's 2011 crown which may be mission impossible but we'll see if Ethan Hunt and crew can pull it off.

Wonderful Radio, in the midst of terrible reviews had a so-so opening with 281,296.  Assuming a less than encouraging word of mouth, the picture may see a quick exit from theaters, especially as it loses screens and business in two weeks to lunar day releases.

The second Sherlock Holmes lost about half its business in its third outing, garnering 223,500 sales.  It looks set to cross the two million mark, which will likely be its last major milestone as it continues to diminish through the month.

Perfect Game has crossed the one million mark but has done so with little fanfare as the well-received baseball pic has added 133,580 to its total this weekend.  A mediocre performance for a big holiday release.

Meanwhile My Way dropped all the way to number 6 as it added 112,905 admissions and has now inched over the 2 million mark, so much for 10 million!

Spellbound at number 9 sold another 46,231 tickets as it winds down its run and is now very close to the 3 millin mark.

Jesus Hospital is the Korean film opening next week and I can't imagine it will be in any position to boost domestic ticket sales.  We'll have to wait until the following Lunar Day weekend when a number of high profile releases find their way into theaters.  MI4 may spend a fifth week on top, unless The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opens big.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-upReviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Korean Box Office Update (12/30, 2011 - 01/01, 2012)

Korean Films Outdone By Hollywood as 2012 Gets Underway



Title Release Date Weekend Total
1 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (us) 12/15/11 1,013,668 5,386,797
2 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (us) 12/21/11 448,287 1,432,109
3 My Way 12/21/11 416,646 1,735,608
4 Perfect Game 12/21/11 238,191 890,261
5 Friends Naki on Monster Island (jp) 12/29/11 166,347 203,118
6 Spellbound 12/1/11 147,183 2,819,392
7 The Lion King 3D (us) 12/29/11 139,178 170,962
8 Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Reshiram (jp) 12/22/11 75,759 285,518
9 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked (us) 12/15/11 61,468 516,727
10 Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Zekrom (jp) 12/22/11 57,113 234,721
- Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North! 11/17/11 693 10,172
- My Barefoot Friend 12/15/11 301 2,498
- Punch 10/20/11 181 5,316,625
- Green Days: Dinosaur and I 6/23/11 136 51,622
- ●REC 11/24/11 80 2,843



Business was on par with the last New Year's weekend, with 2.8 million tickets sold but whereas Korean films accounted for a 70% market share last year, this time around they cobbled together a measly 30% as yet another high profile Korean blockbuster has floundered and Hollywood fare has proven more palatable to local audiences.

For the third straight weekend, Tom Cruise's fourth Mission Impossible has taken the top spot and once again with over a million admissions.  It's 1,013,668 take has increased its haul to an exceptional 5,386,797 which already good enough for No. 4 on the 2011 chart.  Sherlock Holmes 2 also held very well as it receded only 10% for a 448,287 take.

Meanwhile, all the buzz surrounding MI4 has sapped any interest domestic viewers had in taking in Jang Je-kyu's enormous WWII spectacle My Way as it has dropped 45% to 416,646 after a very disappointing opening weekend.  It has now banked 1,735,608 in 12 days, a shockingly low figure for a film that cost 30 billion won to produce.  It is about to open in Japan where it will need to do serious business if it hopes to stand a chance of recouping its production costs.

The Perfect Game dropped about a third to 238,191, also after an unimpressive start.  Competition has been fierce but perhaps audiences were given too many baseball pictures this year after Kang Woo-suk's GLove and Kim Sang-jin's underperforming Fighting Spirit, not to mention the Brad Pitt starring Moneyball which played very recently.

Spellbound was the lone bright spot for local films as it held well, dropping only 20% for 147,183.  It looks set to cross the 3 million mark, a milestone that My Way may not reach.

The rest of the top 10 was filled with Japanese animes and Hollywood kids fare while outside the top 10, Korean films barely registered.

Next week, Wonderful Radio opens but it has been getting poor reviews and I can't imagine it will be the film to unseat MI4 which seems destined for a fourth victory lap.  Business will pick up for local fare in a few weeks with the Lunar Day holiday weekend but until then, things look pretty grim.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-upReviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Korean Box Office Update (12/23-12/25, 2011)

Tom Cruise's MI4 Scales Over My Way for Surprise Top Spot




Title Release Date Weekend Total
1 Mission: Impossible 4 (us) 12/15/11 1,230,676 3,677,069
2 My Way 12/21/11 770,220 1,001,676
3 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (us) 12/21/11 517,421 659,039
4 Perfect Game 12/21/11 340,574 473,088
5 Spellbound 12/1/11 184,145 2,536,632
6 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked (us) 12/15/11 162,953 383,500
7 Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Reshiram (jp) 12/22/11 130,231 142,727
8 Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Zekrom (jp) 12/22/11 113,229 124,173
9 The Adventures of Tintin (us) 12/7/11 39,870 773,043
10 Arthur Christmas (us) 11/25/11 31,682 614,441
- Punch 10/20/11 856 5,315,682
- My Barefoot Friend 12/15/11 437 1,653
- SIU 11/24/11 271 1,118,060
- Life Is Peachy 12/8/11 223 2,887
- Dancing Cat 11/17/11 191 11,849
- The Forgotten Bag 11/17/11 147 6,323
- Too Many Villains 12/15/11 123 760


As expected, it was a huge weekend at the Korean box office this Christmas but the victor was a surprise.  After months of extraordinary performances from domestic films, the results for this frame are an unfortunate way to wrap up the year.  In total, admissions hit 3.56 million, a 10% gain over last year, one of the busiest weekends in Korean cinema history but sadly Korean films held only three of the top 10 spots and accounted for a below average 36.5% market share versus last year's 56.7%.

Korean audiences seemed starved for either blockbuster fare or children's movies over this past holiday weekend.  The bottom five of the top 10 were all movies aimed at children, including two Japanese animes.  I've been noticing the relatively poor performance of these kids' films over the past few weeks but now that I see the market share their combined efforts occupy I wonder whether foreign distributors were just a little careless in looking at the release calendar for Korea, ultimately too many films with a specific audience battled it out for a piece of the same pie.

However I have been thinking about the potential future of children's movies at the Korean box office.  Typically the country does not produce many of its own but that seems to be changing as audiences are becoming more receptive to the emerging talents of Korean-produced fare for children, especially in animation.  Kung Fu Panda 2 was directed by a Korean-American and this helped it sell over five million tickets.  A little later in the summer Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild became by far the most successful Korean animation ever made as it soared past the two million mark.  Perhaps next winter there will be some domestic children's movies beside all of Hollywood's seasonal offerings.

After last week's huge opening, Mission Impossible IV has actually increased 20% to 1,230,676.  The film has accumulated nearly four million admissions already and has done so against considerable competition.  Tom Cruise and company will likely end up very high on the yearly chart but how far will they go?

Kang Je-gyu's My Way, the highest budgeted Korean film of all time ($30 million) and probably the year's most anticipated film, had a sizable but very underwhelming debut as it took only 770,220, though it has sold just over a million tickets since opening.  Perhaps business will pick up in the coming weeks but this is an alarming start to the blockbuster war film's theater run.  Word of mouth has been mixed so far but awareness is huge for the pic.

The sequel to Sherlock Holmes had a solid debut with 517,42, slightly below the original's bow in 2009.  The Perfect Game had a decent 340,574 weekend but I expected a bit more after the strong previews.  However, there is some positive buzz surrounding the film so business could pick up, though it is a busy marketplace.  Spellbound dropped three spots but held onto to 60% of its business for a 184,145 weekend and with over 2.5 million admissions through this point, the three million mark is not out of the question.

As already mentioned the bottom five in the chart were all children's films:  Alvin and the Chipmunks (162,953); Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Reshiram (130,231); Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Zekrom (113,229); The Adventures of Tintin (39,870); and Arthur Christmas (31,682).

Outside the Top 10:  Punch shed most of its theaters and sold 856 tickets; My Barefoot Friend added 437 admission in its second week; SIU also lost the majority of its theaters and wound up with 271; Life Is Peachy dropped to 223; Dancing Cat added 191 to its impressive limited run; The Forgotten Bag sold 147 this week; and Too Many Villains, a film I'm tremendously excited to see, sadly sold a paltry 123 tickets in its second weekend, with only 760 in total.

Next Week:  All eyes will be on MI4 and My Way as we see how they perform in their third and second weeks respectively.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-upReviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.