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[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.12.25 ~ 2015.12.27

"The Himalayas" proves insurmountable for "Star Wars"...

J.J. Abrams' "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" continued its record-breaking run worldwide over Christmas; the film, the seventh in "Star Wars" series, has now grossed an incredible $1.1 billion since its release mid-December (the fastest to do so), but only $18.6 million of that has come from South Korean audiences.

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Last week, both "The Force Awakens" and Lee Seok-hoon's "The Himalayas" were released, with the latter coming out on top, and week two for both these films furthered than divide as "The Himalayas" pushed on to secure a second week at the top of the pile.

"The Himalayas", which stars Hwang Jung-min, took first place with 1.7 million admissions (38%) across 1,094 screens (up from last weekend), bringing its total tally now to 4.2 million, or $28.2 million. "The Force Awakens", however, saw its screens reduced somewhat and secured 936 thousand admissions (22%). These two films combined captured over 60% of the box office pie.

In third place entered the 3D computer animation film "Hotel Transylvania 2" by Genndy Tartakovsky and stars Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez and Kevin James. From the 685 screens allocated to it, "Hotel Transylvania 2" claimed the attention of 600 thousand filmgoers (12%) to secure a podium finish for the last weekend of the year. "Hotel Transylvania 2" was originally released back in September, and worldwide this animation has already grossed over $456 million.

Park Hoon-jung's historical action flick "The Tiger: An Old Hunter's Tale" fell just the one place with 392 thousand admissions (8.3%), moving its total now to 1.4 million admissions ($9.3 million), while the popular drama by Woo Min-ho, "Inside Men", followed with 262.8 thousand (6%) of its own. Since its release mid-November, "Inside Men" has attracted over 6.9 million to its screens and banked over $47.6 million; making it the fifth highest-grossing film released in Korea in 2015.

Sixth place fell to the French animation "The Little Prince" (247 thousand admissions - 5%), followed by the latest in the "Pokemon" series of films, "Pokemon the Movie XY: Ring no Chomajin", with 142 thousand (2.7%); both of which were released last Wednesday just before Christmas.

"The Peanuts Movie", based on the popular comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz, arrived on Christmas Eve, and during its first weekend out managed to attract 101 thousand, or just over 2%. Finally, the last weekend of the year was rounded out by Park Yeong-gyoon's "Pororo, Cyberspace Adventure" (55 thousand - 1.1%), while tenth place was claimed by the re-release of the 2003 comedy "Love Actually" by Richard Curtis with 25.4 thousand (0.5%).

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.12.25 - 2015.12.27 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Himalayas" (히말라야) 2015/12/16 1 764 139 4 220 745
2 "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"   936 317 2 500 208
3 "Hotel Transylvania 2"   600 235 661 843
4 "The Tiger: An Old Hunter's Tale" (대호) 2015/12/16 392 343 1 415 460
5 "Inside Men" (내부자들) 2015/11/19 262 853 6 919 700
6 "The Little Prince" (Le Petit Prince)   247 024 314 080
7 "Pokemon the Movie XY: Ring no Chomajin" (ポケモン・ザ・ムービーXY「光輪(リング)の超魔神 フーパ」)   142 421 165 060
8 "The Peanuts Movie"   101 698 117 886
9 "Pororo, Cyberspace Adventure" (뽀로로 극장판 컴퓨터 왕국 대모험) 2015/12/10 55 916 357 366
10 "Love Actually"   25 459 276 345
Korean movies only  
  "Cruel State" (나쁜 나라) 2015/12/03 1 689 14 938
  "The Priests" (검은 사제들) 2015/11/05 1 289 5 442 012
  "Where Is My Son??" (나의 아들, 나의 어머니) 2015/12/17 323 2 940
  "Love Guide for Dumpees" (극적인 하룻밤) 2015/12/03 203 320 768
  "Timing" (타이밍) 2015/12/10 186 37 804
  "One Way Trip" (글로리데이) 2016/__/__ 154 154
  "The King of Jokgu" (족구왕) 2014/08/21 154 46 024
  "Right Now, Wrong Then" (지금은맞고그때는틀리다) 2015/09/24 154 79 641
  "In Her Place" (인 허 플레이스) 2015/12/17 110 1 318
  "No Tomorrow" (섬. 사라진 사람들) 2016/02/__ 103 321

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)

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