[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.07.29 ~ 2016.07.31
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"Operation Chromite" overtakes "Train to Busan" as Korea's number one...
John H. Lee's war story "Operation Chromite" entered the fray last week and managed to displace Yeon Sang-ho's action thriller ("Train to Busan") to claim pole position. Last weekend Yeon's atypical zombie flick dominated proceedings by capturing 75% of the sales (3.2 million admissions), but week two for Yeon's first live action flick saw it slip one place to second as "Operation Chromite" enjoyed a successful opening weekend by capturing 1.7 million admissions (36.5) from 1,048 screens.
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"Operation" Chromite" is based on the true story about General McArthur and a top secret spy mission leading up to the Battle of Inchon in 1950. The film stars Lee Jung-jae, Lee Beom-soo, Jin Se-yeon, as well as Liam Neeson as General McArthur himself.
With the 1.4 million admissions "Train to Busan" claimed over the weekend, Yeon's film has raced to 8.4 million admissions ($61.4 million). The film was released in Korea on July 20 and the summer crowds have come out in droves to catch Yeon's intriguing and genre-busting stab at the largely overplayed zombie flick genre. "Train to Busan" is now the third highest-grossing film of the year just behind "Captain America: Civil War" which attracted 8.6 million admissions back in April.
Paul Greengrass' "Jason Bourne" also arrived last week and captured 30.3% of the box office pie (1 million admissions) from 826 screens around the country. Worldwide, "Jason Bourne", the fifth feature in the "Jason Bourne" series of films, has currently grossed $110 million (the film cost an estimated $120 million to produce). Pixar's "Finding Dory" remained unmoved in fourth place with 173,907 (3.4%), shifting its total tally to 2.3 million ($17.1 million), followed by Jon M. Chu's thriller: "Now You See Me 2" starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe and Lizzy Caplan. Jon's film added 104,264 admissions over the weekend which pushes its total admissions count now just over 3 million.
The latest "Ice Age", "Ice Age: Collision Course", a 3D animation film, fell three places to sixth having attracted 98,742 admissions (1.8%) and was followed by another 3D animation, Trevor Wall's "Norm of the North" on 67,265 (1.3%). Two Japanese films were next: Shigeharu Takahashi and Shinji Ushiro's "Yo-Kai Watch Movie: It's the Secret of Birth, Meow!", and Hirokazu Koreeda's family drama "After the Storm". "Yo-Kai Watch Movie: It's the Secret of Birth, Meow!" was released in Japan back in 2014, but it's finally made its way onto Korea's big screens where is has, with the 61,130 admissions (1.1%) claimed over the weekend, grossed $1.8 million (265,066 admissions) since its released late July. "After the Storm" was screened at Cannes this year and the films first weekend out in Korea yielded 16,936 admissions (0.4%) from 71 screens. Finally, the last weekend of July was rounded out by the German film "I'm off then" on 9,237 admissions (0.2%).
Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.07.29 - 2016.07.31 (www.kobis.or.kr)
| # | Films | Release date | Week-end | Total |
| 1 | "Operation Chromite" (인천상륙작전) | 2016/07/27 | 1 794 037 | 2 625 516 |
| 2 | "Train to Busan" (부산행) | 2016/07/20 | 1 453 260 | 8 408 977 |
| 3 | "Jason Bourne" | 1 017 737 | 1 543 249 | |
| 4 | "Finding Dory" | 172 909 | 2 362 714 | |
| 5 | "Now You See Me 2" | 104 264 | 3 032 425 | |
| 6 | "Ice Age: Collision Course" | 98 744 | 464 759 | |
| 7 | "Norm of the North" | 67 265 | 115 088 | |
| 8 | "Yo-kai Watch the Movie: It's the Secret of Birth, Meow!" (映画 妖怪ウォッチ 誕生) | 61 133 | 265 069 | |
| 9 | "After the Storm" (海よりもまだ深く) | 16 907 | 22 897 | |
| 10 | "I'm Off Then" (Ich bin dann mal weg) | 9 177 | 55 346 | |
| Korean movies only | ||||
| "Run-off" (국가대표2) | 2016/08/10 | 4 906 | 6 905 | |
| "The Last Princess" (덕혜옹주) | 2016/08/03 | 2 813 | 5 678 | |
| "Bling" (슈퍼 프렌즈) | 2016/08/10 | 1 624 | 3 322 | |
| "Seondal: The Man Who Sells the River" (봉이 김선달) | 2016/07/06 | 1 590 | 2 043 258 | |
| "Tunnel" (터널) | 2016/08/10 | 1 437 | 1 916 | |
| "The World of Us" (우리들) | 2016/06/16 | 913 | 37 926 | |
| "The Handmaiden" (아가씨) | 2016/06/01 | 823 | 4 284 588 | |
| "Seoul Station" (서울역) | 2016/08/18 | 483 | 483 | |
| "Canola" (계춘할망) | 2016/05/19 | 280 | 482 062 | |
| "Lovers - Omnibus" (연인들) | 2008/12/04 | 195 | 1 868 | |