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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.10.31 ~ 2014.11.02

"Gone Girl" stays put…

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Last week's number one, David Fincher's "Gone Girl", retained the top spot during its second week out, only this weekend the victory was a little more convincing. Fincher's latest added another 452K admissions (34%) to bring its two-week total now to 1.2M ($9.1M). Its closest rival came again via Jang Jin's "We Are Brothers" (starring Cho Jin-woong and Kim Sung-kyun), which managed to register just over 243K (17%), but Jin's comedy drama still finds itself 200K short of that million milestone.

Lee Hae-joon's drama "My Dictator" was the only new local release to crack a top ten finish, and over its allotted 654 screens managed 207K (15%). It was a competitive haul that came close to sending "We Are Brothers" packing (which, surprisingly didn't happen despite the newbie enjoying 150 more screenings than Jang Jin's). In fourth place, and down just the one place, was "My Love, My Bride - 2014" (134K - 9.6%) by Lim Chang-sang; a romantic comedy released early October that has since amassed over 2M admissions ($15M).

The top five gobbled over 80% of the box office pie, which left films like "Dracula Untold" (56K - 4%) and "Boyhood" (43K - 3%) to scramble for recognition in the middle order. Both these features, to be fair, came close to challenging Chang-sang's favourite, as there was just 25K stubs that separated 4th from 6th. Richard Linklater's coming-of-age-drama "Boyhood" has grossed over ten times its $4M production costs, and the film continues to enjoy unanimous critical acclaim for its enduring depiction of a human subject in motion. This innovative experimental drama, however, has not resonated much with Korean filmgoers, and has managed just 126K ($907K) since entering the Korean fray late last month.

In eighth place came the British-American mystery thriller "Before I Go to Sleep", which stars Nicole Kidman, Mark Strong, and Colin Firth in Rowan Joffé's adaptation of S. J. Watson's 2011 novel of the same name. It claimed 26K (1.9%) over 197 screens and was tailed by last week's number six, "Whistle Blower" (previously known as "The Messenger"). Lee Choon-hyeong's true-life drama now moves onto 1.7M admissions ($12.5M) after four and a half weeks of steady interest. Lastly came "The Maze Runner" whose long run in Korea (the film came out back in mid-September) is now teetering to a close as occupied tenth with 18K, but has presently scored over $20M from local moviegoers.

 

What's coming out next week in Korea? [HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...

Last weekend's report: [HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.10.24 ~ 2014.10.26

 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.10.31 - 2014.11.02 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Gone Girl"   452 685 1 226 440
2 "We Are Brothers" (우리는 형제입니다) 2014/10/23 243 239 807 682
3 "My Dictator" (나의 독재자) 2014/10/30 207 684 273 955
4 "My Love, My Bride - 2014" (나의 사랑 나의 신부) 2014/10/08 134 645 2 061 059
5 "Red Carpet" (레드카펫) 2014/10/23 68 827 274 802
6 "Dracula Untold"   56 770 1 303 800
7 "Boyhood"   43 203 126 474
8 "Before I Go to Sleep"   26 182 35 433
9 "Whistle Blower" (제보자) 2014/10/02 21 994 1 745 595
10 "The Maze Runner"   18 592 2 807 659
Korean movies only  
  "The Follower, Ok Han-heum" (제자, 옥한흠) 2014/10/30 7 682 9 463
  "The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol" (다이빙벨) 2014/10/23 3 125 3 869
  "The Road Called Life" (메밀꽃, 운수 좋은 날, 그리고 봄봄) 2014/08/21 933 32 794
  "Tuning Fork" (소리굽쇠) 2014/10/30 835 1 943
  "The Woman Upstairs" (위층여자) 2014/10/29 651 1 904
  "Love Affair - 2014" (정사) 2014/10/30 623 1 680
  "Jungle Shuffle" (정글히어로) 2014/10/02 497 69 692
  "Daughter" (다우더) 2014/11/06 423 423
  "Scarlet Innocence" (마담 뺑덕) 2014/10/02 359 470 415
  "Romance in Seoul" (서울연애) 2014/10/30 238 980

 

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.comKoreaOnTheCouch)

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