Korean Box Office Update (09/30-10/02, 2011)

Weekend of September 30 - October 2, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	The Crucible	9/22/11	911,179	2,501,300
2	The Client	9/29/11	480,049	640,454
3	Countdown	9/29/11	145,775	219,271
4	Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	91,886	7,245,651
5	Abduction (us)	9/29/11	64,972	82,045
6	From up on Poppy Hill (jp)	9/29/11	61,370	65,924
7	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	30,086	916,939
8	Contagion (us)	9/22/11	21,501	207,766
9	The Killer Elite (us)	9/22/11	12,828	147,049
10	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	11,227	2,345,076
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	7/27/11	4,435	2,183,191
-	Pained	7/9/11	3,658	696,117
-	Champ	7/9/11	1,215	530,801
-	The Day He Arrives	8/9/11	1,013	37,169

Business picked up a little this week over the last two with nearly 1.9 million admissions counted over the weekend. Two big Korean film opened wide and while only five films in the top 10, four of those led the marketplace and took a hefty 87.2% of business. Of the other five films, three were American holdovers (Mr. Popper's Penguins, Contagion and The Killer Elite), and the two midlevel openers were Abduction from Hollywood and the new Studio Ghibli film From Up on Poppy Hill from Japan.

Once again The Crucible (aka Silenced) dominated the marketplace with a staggering 911,179 tickets sold, this represents a huge 33% increase over last week's already impressive opening. With 2.5 million already tucked away (which puts it at No.7 on the yearly domestic chart), The Crucible should well in the coming weeks and may finds itself very high up the chart before long.

Last week yielded some solid preview figures for The Client, and it looked like a good bet to come in first this week. It managed 480,049, a strong number for this kind of film and this time of year but it barely managed to earn half of The Crucible's second weekend, which clearly ate into its potential earnings. However the buzz has been building on this film due in large part to an agressive marketing campaign so it may yet conjure up some big numbers.

The other wide Korean release this week was Countdown, the new thriller starring Jeon Do-yeon and Jang Jae-yeong. Reviews have been good but the film only managed a disappointing 145,755 admissions in its first frame despite the strong pedigree attached. This kind of figure seems to reinforce the notion that star wattage is dwindling at the Korean box office in favor of strong ensemble cast. Last month's Hindsight seemed to suffer a similar fate.

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon dropped 38% this week for a 91,886 weekend. Its total, which stands at 7,245,651 is within 130,000 of Sunny's chart-topping performance. It should pass it within the next two weeks unless it crashes out very quickly but will not go any further.

Marrying the Mafia IV all but disappeared from the marketplace with a minuscule 11,227 as it finished out its run. Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild, Pained and Champ are still hanging around with very small takes while Hong Sang-soo's The Day He Arrives added another 1,013 to brings its total to 37,169.

The Crucible is all but guaranteed to stay up top next week as there will be no significant openings. The only wide Korean release will be Kim Sang-jin's new film Fighting Spirit, a baseball-themed comedy-drama.


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-up. Reviews 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.

Weekly Review Round-up (09/24-09/30, 2011)

An enormous amount of reviews this week (53!) due in part to Austin's Fantasia Fest and the release of Poetry in Toronto. I'm sure I've missed a couple though but if you can point me towards any more I will gladly include them!

NEW KOREAN RELEASES

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon

(koreanfilm.org, September 2011)

Blind

(Ain't It Cool News, September 29, 2011)

(andrewmccants.com, September 24, 2011)

(austin360.com, September 23, 2011)

(austinist.com, September 26, 2011)

(cinemablend.com, September 23, 2011)

(fangoria.com, September 22, 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 26, 2011)

(Film School Rejects, September 25, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 23, 2011)

(Twitch, September 22, 2011)

Countdown

(Seongyong's Private Place, September 25, 2011)

(The Korea Times, September 29, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

GLove

(hancinema.net, September 24, 2011)

Hanji

(Twitch, September 24, 2011)

Haunters

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 26, 2011)

(indieWIRE, September 26, 2011)

(insidepulse.com, September 25, 2011)

(The Austin Chronicle, September 29, 2011)

(Twitch, September 25, 2011)

Invasion of Alien Bikini

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 27, 2011)

(klownsasesinos.com, September 26, 2011) - Spanish

(slashfilm.com, September 24, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 23, 2011)

(Twitch, September 23, 2011)

Moby Dick

(Modern Korean Cinema, September 30, 2011)

Poetry

(cynicritics.com, September 15, 2011)

(exclaim.ca, September 29, 2011)

(kdvr.com, September 23, 2011)

(nowtoronto.com, September 29, 2011)

(The Globe and Mail, September 30, 2011)

(The Grid, September 28, 2011)

(Toronto.com, September 30, 2011)

(Toronto Sun, September 30, 2011)

The Servant

(Init_Scenes, September 29, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(Ain't It Cool News, September 24, 2011)

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(Film School Rejects, September 26, 2011)

(Film Threat, September 24, 2011)

(geekscape.net, September 28, 2011)

(hancinema.net, September 24, 2011)

(ifc.com, September 24, 2011)

(indieWIRE, September 26, 2011)

(klownsasesinos.com, September 26, 2011) - Spanish

(Sound on Sight, September 26, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 24, 2011)

(The Film Stage, September 25, 2011)

(Twitch, September 23, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Summer Time, 2001

(Hangul Celluloid, September 16, 2011)

The Sword With No Name, 2009

(buzzfocus.com, September 28, 2011)

Woman on the Beach, 2005

(The New Yorker, September 28, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews 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.

Korean Cinema News (09/22-09/28, 2011)

Another light week for Korean cinema news but in my searching I did uncover a large amount of Fantastic Fest korean film reviews which will be features in Friday's WEEKLY REVIEW ROUND-UP, maybe that explains it.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Online Smiles for Sunny
CJ E&M Pictures has scored strongly with the multiple online releases of its hit film Sunny. Sunny was released for download via portals and cloud services on 8 Sep, shortly before the Chuseok public holidays, and achieved $597,000 after 10 days. Separately it earned $511,000 on Korea Telecom's IPTV service. Taken together with revenues from other IPTV outlets, CJ estimates that Sunny earned $1.28 million over the Chuseok period and is on course for total ancillary revenues of $2.56 million. (Film Business Asia, September 23, 2011)

Bae Doo-na Ice Cool Ahead of Hollywood Debut

All it took was a video call and a short home movie, and the Wachowski brothers -- the brains behind The Matrix trilogy -- were sold on actress Bae Doo-na. The Wachowskis had been looking around for someone to fill a role in their upcoming movie, Cloud Atlas. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 24, 2011)

LKFF: Festival News from Mayfair, First Impressions & a Salute to Curatorial Ambition
A preview of the London Korean Film Festival courtesy of Ian London over on the New Korean Cinema site. (New Korean Cinema, September 25, 2011)

HK Film Archive's "Restored Treasures" to Feature Korean Director Shin Sang-ok's Masterpieces
An accomplished director and producer, Shin Sang-ok, nicknamed the 'Prince of Korean Cinema', was one of a handful of directors who were instrumental in making the 1950s and '60s a golden age for Korean cinema. The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA)'s "Restored Treasures" series in October and November will screen two of his masterpieces. The two selected films were also the first and third restored treasures of the Korean Film Archive (KOFA). (7th Space, September 26, 2011)

Unsettling Dogani Revisits School Horror
A new film based on a true story is stirring up anger and a sense of helplessness among Korean moviegoers. The movie, called Dogani or The Crucible in English, is adopted from the bestselling book of the same name by Gong Ji-young, one of the most prominent and respected female writers in Korea (The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2011)

Top Actor Jang Dong-gun Set to Star in Foreign Film
Top Korean actor Jang Dong-gun is set to star with Zhang Ziyi and Cecilia Cheung in director Hur Jin-ho’s adaptation of the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Jang is fresh off the shoot of Kang Je-kyu’s sweeping WWII film My Way which wrapped recently. (kobiz, September 27, 2011)

5-Day Korean Film Fest in Cebu Starts
A five-day Korean Film Festival in Cebu will be held starting tomorrow September 28 until October 2 with top-grossing films to be shown for free at the SM Cinema. (Philippine Information Agency, September 27, 2011)

American Professor Loves Korean Movies
'Korean movies are humanistic and deal with human existence, and that makes us watch them. I think they are this way because of the huge tragedies of the Japanese occupation and the Korean War.' 53-year-old Earl Jackson, a professor at the Korean National University of Arts, told Yonhap News on the 22nd that Korean movies have unique characteristics compared to the cinema of other nations. (asiancorrespondent.com, September 28, 2011)

INTERVIEW

Interview With Director LIM Woo-seong
Up-and-coming Korean director Lim Woo-seong, whose Scars is screening in the San Sebastian International Film Festival Zabaltegi-New Directors Section, speaks to Cine21’s SHIN Dooyoung about his work. (kobiz, September 23, 2011)

TRAILERS

Hi Dokdo

Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!

BOX OFFICE

Korean Box Office Update (09/23-09/25, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, September 26, 2011)

Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews 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.

Korean Box Office Update (09/23-09/25, 2011)

Weekend of September 23-25, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	The Crucible	9/22/11	685,784	914,369
2	Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	149,183	7,042,686
3	Contagion (us)	9/22/11	111,932	133,147
4	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	85,808	848,949
5	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	74,487	2,283,806
6	The Killer Elite (us)	9/22/11	70,238	90,591
7	The Client	9/29/11	61,074	61,074
8	Countdown	9/29/11	32,100	39,279
9	Pained	9/7/11	24,591	673,342
10	Champ	9/7/11	17,824	514,194
-	Leafie, A Hen Into The Wild	7/27/11	10,704	2,171,074
-	Hindsight	8/31/11	5,452	761,276
-	Blind	8/10/11	4,798	2,355,927

Business was once again a little slow with 1.4 million tickets sold overall. That's slightly below last year's comparable weekend which had 1.8 million admissions. 7 of the top films were Korean and this is now the 9th weekend in a row where the top place has been occupied by a local film.

After strong previews last week, The Crucible (aka Silenced) has conquered the local box office with a big 685,784 tally on its opening weekend, that accounted for a 48.9% share of the marketplace. With nearly a million admissions tucked away already it will be interesting to see how far this goes although it will come up against some stiff competition next weekend.

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon took its biggest slide yet as it retreated nearly 50% in its 7th weekend, although its 149,183 admissions were enough to push it over 7 million. While it is unlikely to crack 8 million, Arrow will now challenge for the local number 1 spot currently occupied by Sunny and its 7,369,213 take.

Marrying the Mafia IV took another big dive this weekend, this time over 70%. With 74,487 tickets sold this weekend it remains to be seen whether it has enough to go over its predecessors 2.5 million total.

Pained sold 24,591 tickets after falling nearly 80% and now has 673,342 admissions as it winds up its run. Champ suffered a similar fall and 17,824 for a 514,194 total. Outside of the top 10 Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild, Hindsight, and Blind all posted small numbers.

The Client and Countdown, two hotly anticipated Autumn releases, had their previews this weekend.  They scored 61,074 and 32,100 admissions respectively and all eyes will be on them when they open in earnest next weekend. Also in the mix for the top place will be The Crucible's sophomore frame.


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-up. Reviews 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.

Weekly Review Round-up (09/17-09/23, 2011)

A good number of new reviews this week including a whole bunch relating to the Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today MOMA screenings currently taking place in New York. Since most of those reviews are from the event itself I've put them in their own section at the bottom.

NEW KOREAN RELEASES

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon

(Front Row Reviews, September 18, 2011)

Blind

(Fangoria, September 22, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

Amen

(Screen Daily, September 18, 2011)

(The Hollywood Reporter, September 22, 2011)

Bedevilled

(Twitch, September 22, 2011)

Metamorpheses

(Oriental Nightmares, September 19, 2011)

Officer of the Year

(Beyond Hollywood, September 21, 2011)

Poetry

(Metro Pulse, September 21, 2011)

Rolling Home With a Bull

(New Korean Cinema, September 22, 2011)

Secret Reunion

(Manila Bulletin, September 21, 2011)

Sin of a Family

(Beyond Hollywood, September 18, 2011)

Suicide Forecast

(Beyond Hollywood, September 15, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(Cigarette Burns, September 7, 2011)

(Empire Online, September 2011)

PAST FILMS

A Good Lawyer's Wife, 2003

(Anikor, September 21, 2011)

Lost in the Mountains, 2009

(Twitch, September 22, 2011)

Mother Is a Whore, 2009

(Beyond Hollywood, September 18, 2011)

Passerby #3, 2009

(New Korean Cinema, September 19, 2011)

Rainy Days, 1979

(Init_Scenes, September 19, 2011)

Secret Sunshine, 2007

(Metro Pulse, September 21, 2011)

The Chaser, 2008

(sky.com, September 2011)

The Sword With No Name, 2009

(DVD Verdict, September 20, 2011)

YEONGHWA: KOREAN FILM TODAY

Animal Town, 2009

Hello Ghost, 2010

Influenza, 2004

Lost in the Mountains, 2009

Midnight FM, 2010

Mozart Town, 2008

Passerby #3, 2009

Rolling Home With A Bull, 2010

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews 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.

Korean Cinema News (09/15-09/21, 2011)

Not a huge amount of news this week, mainly pieces on the upcoming Busan film fest. Also a couple of interviews and trailers.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Won Bin’s The Man From Nowhere to be released in China
Actor Won Bin‘s blockbuster film The Man From Nowhere will be meeting audiences in China. According to the Beijing, China office of the Korean Film Commission on September 15th, The Man From Nowhere will be released in more than 4,000 cinemas across China on September 16th. Depending on the turnout of the opening week of this intermediate scale distribution, the movie may further expand on the number of cinemas that it will be showing in. (allkpop, September 15, 2011)

Kim Ki-duk to Head Jury of Eurasia Film Festival
The international jury of the seventh Eurasia international festival which opened in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Monday will be headed by South Korean film director Kim Ki-Duk. His last film Arirang will be shown in the "Special Event" programme. (trend.az, september 19, 2011)

Poster revealed for the upcoming Korean movie My Way
A poster for Kang Je-gyu's mega-blockbuster My Way, which reportedly cost $30 million to make, has appeared online, the film is set for release in December. (hancinema.net, September 19, 2011)

Song Hye-kyo's New Movie to Premier at Busan Int'l Film Festival

Actress Song Hye-kyo plays a documentary producer who forgives a 17-year-old boy for killing her fiance in the movie A Reason to Live, which will premier at the 16th Busan International Film Festival next month. The film is directed by Lee Jeong-hyang, of Art Museum by the Zoo (1998) fame. It was officially invited to premiere at the Gala Presentation of the film festival. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 20, 2011)

DMZ Korean International Documentary Festival Opens Sept. 22
The Third DMZ Korean International Documentary Festival will open Sept. 22 to 28 in Paju, Gyeonggi province, a northern South Korean city bordering North Korea. The event celebrating themes of peace, life and communication will show 100 documentary films from 30 countries around the world. (The Hollywood Reporter, September 20, 2011)

Busan Int'l Film Fest to Shed Light on SE Asian Cinema

Asia's largest film festival, the Busan International Film Festival, will be held from Oct. 6 to14 at five theaters in the city of Busan. Some 307 films from 70 countries will be screened, with 135 premiering at the festival. The festival was formerly known as the Pusan International Film Festival but amended the spelling of its name this year to conform to the official Romanization of the city in which it is held. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 20, 2011)

Haunters Picked as a Must-see of Fantastic Fest
Haunters, a South Korean movie about a child who has the ability to control anyone who makes eye contact with him. He can assemble armies with the power of his mind. "It's very superhero-esque," says Tim League, festival founder. "But there's no costumes. It plays out more like a drama." (The Hollywood Reporter, September 21, 2011)

INTERVIEWS

Kim Man-hee Interview
Paul Quinn interviews the director of the blockbuster Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon which will be the opening of the upcoming London Korean Film Festival. (Hangul Celluloid, September 16, 2011)

Toronto Fest Interview with Mia Wasikowska
Mia Wasikowska discusses working on the new Park Chan-wook film Stoker which is currently in production. Skip down to the final few questions. (The A.V. Club, September 20, 2011)

TRAILERS

King of Pigs

Many a Little Romance

Mr. Idol

Scars

The Kick

BOX OFFICE

Korean Box Office Update (09/16-09/18, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, September 19, 2011)

Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews 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.

Korean Box Office Update (09/16-09/18, 2011)

Weekend of September 16-18, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	292,931	6,589,663
2	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	258,466	1,917,256
3	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	172,668	640,685
4	Pained	9/7/11	105,016	555,879
5	The Crucible	22/9/2011	80,146	89,201
6	Rise of the Planet of the Apes (us)	17/8/2011	70,467	2,626,488
7	Champ	9/7/11	69,780	421,633
8	Shark Night 3D (us)	15/9/2011	49,646	61,148
9	Final Destination 5 (us)	9/8/11	43,462	206,718
10	Hindsight	31/8/2011	42,814	681,757
-	Blind	8/10/11	29,271	2,304,931
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	7/27/11	23,733	2,141,264
-	The Day He Arrives	8/9/11	4,501	22,966

Following last week's Chuseok festivities, box office receipts have shrunk down considerably with no major new film on wide release. The good news is that just like the last few weeks local fare has dominated on the charts.

Having relinquished its crown to last week's winner Marrying the Mafia IV, Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon is back on top again with 292,931 which represents a sub-30% drop from last weekend. With nearly 6.6 million admissions as of Sunday, Arrow is well positioned to overtake Sunny in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile the latest Marrying the Mafia installment had a predictably steep decline of 55%, taking 258,466 in its sophomore frame. If it manages to level out somewhat it wil easily have enough steam to drive its total above that of the franchise's last entry.

Kwon Sang-woo's lastest Pained saw a standard decline and raked in another 105,016 admissions but after it mediocre opening this may not be enough to bring it over a million.

The Crucible was the only new Korean film to play nationwide but it did so in only 221 theaters for previews and is scheduled for its full release on September 22. Nevertheless it managed to pull in 80,146 which is a good omen for its chances, it remains to be seen how the word-of-mouth will affect its chances.

Cha Tae-hyun's latest comedy Champ took a dive this week and nearly saw its take slashed in half with only 69,780 added to its coffers. It will likely fall out of the top 10 entirely next week.

Hindsight also slowed by nearly 50% with another 42,814 tickets sold. Its chances at one million admissions are all but nil at this point.

Outside of the top 10 Blind and Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild both fell by another 30% and their respective totals now stand at 2,304,931 and 2,141,264. Hong Sang-soo's latest The Day He Arrives added another 4,501 admissions to bring its two-week total to 22,966, a good start for this acclaimed limited release.


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-up. Reviews 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.