Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.03.31 ~ 2017.04.02

Foreign fairytale narrowly outplays "The Prison" for the top spot...

"Beauty and the Beast", Bill Condon's re-imagining of Disney's classic fairytale, fended off a flood of new entries last weekend to secure a second week at the top. Now in its third weekend, the film once again narrowly retained pole position by capturing 32.51% of the sales (650,185 admissions). That sum moves its bottom line in Korea now to over 4 million admissions ($30.1 million) and is currently the third highest-grossing film of the year behind "The King" (5.3 million) and "Confidential Assignment" (7.8 million). Worldwide, "Beauty and the Beast" is closing in on a billion dollars in sales: $876.3 million.

Advertisement

Less than 100,000 admissions separated Nah Hyeon's debut film "The Prison" and Condon's remake last weekend, and the margin between them remained close here. "The Prison" (starring Han Suk-kyu, Kim Rae-won, Kang Shin-il, Lee Kyung-young, and Kim Sung-kyun) earned 26.33% of the sales (510,105 admissions) from 906 screens, pushing its total admission count to 2.2 million ($16 million).

While the top two films remained unmoved, a new entry from America arrived to take "Ordinary Person"'s place on the podium. Based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow, "Ghost in the Shell" is a live-action science fiction film starring Scarlett Johansson. Rupert Sanders's retelling was allocated 806 screens around the Korea and captured just over 20% of the sales (390,376 admissions) during its first weekend out. In America and elsewhere, however, the film has received heavy criticism; from the $110 million it took to produce, the film has only banked around $7.7 million.

The highest new local entry came in the form of Yang Kyeong-mo-I's debut feature, the crime drama "One Line" starring Im Si-wan, Jin Goo, Park Byung-eun, Lee Dong-hwi and Kim Sun-young. 588 screens were allocated to Yang's opening effort and 195,586 admissions resulted ($1.97 million). Far behind Yang's first film, with 78,412 admissions (3.94%), fell Theodore Melfi's "Hidden Figures", moving its bottom line now to just over $1 million. This award-winning film (it did, however, miss out on an Oscar) has grossed more than ten times its production budget: currently $221.1 million.

Kim Bong-han's second film after "The Hero" (2013), "Ordinary Person", arrived in third last week with 8.15% of the sales (213,232), but week two for Kim's drama saw it slip three places to sixth. From 389 screens (down from 619), "Ordinary Person" managed just 36,336 admissions (1.73%) from its second weekend out, bringing its bottom line now to $2.5 million, or 365,774 admissions. Shinsuke Sato's "Death Note: Light Up the New World", a sequel to the 2006 film "Death Note 2: The Last Name" (based on the manga series by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata), arrived last Wednesday and opened its Korean account with 13,607 admissions in seventh from 290 screens.

The only other new arrival was the foreign political thriller "Miss Sloane" by director John Madden. It captured 12,452 admissions (0.63%) from 104 screens and was followed by the Chinese animation "Three Little Pigs and the Magic Lamp" with 8,070 (0.38%) from 90. The first weekend of April was rounded out by Hong Sang-soo's latest: "On the Beach at Night Alone" (Kim Min-hee). Hong's 101-minute drama, his twentieth film since "The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well" (1996), added 7,915 admissions to move its total tally now to 40,438 ($279,594).


Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "Beauty and the Beast"   651 889 4 095 817
2 "The Prison" (프리즌) 2017/03/23 513 887 2 214 704
3 "Ghost in the Shell"   392 305 569 703
4 "One Line" (원라인) 2017/03/29 197 240 290 974
5 "Hidden Figures"   78 590 287 203
6 "Ordinary Person" (보통 사람) 2017/03/23 36 575 366 013
7 "Death Note: Light Up the New World" (デスノート Light up the NEW world)   13 750 22 822
8 "Miss Sloane"   12 533 22 194
9 "Three Little Pigs and the Magic Lamp" (三隻小豬與神燈)   8 070 22 930
10 "On the Beach at Night Alone" (밤의 해변에서 혼자) 2017/03/23 7 991 40 514
Korean movies only  
  "House of the Disappeared" (시간 위의 집) 2017/04/05 714 5 088
  "A Single Rider" (싱글라이더) 2017/02/22 260 351 220
  "One Day" (어느날) 2017/04/05 217 2 665
  "New Trial" (재심) 2017/02/15 159 2 420 158
  "Cherry Blossoms, Again" (다시, 벚꽃) 2017/04/06 149 594
  "Behead the King" (왕을 참하라) 2017/03/16 78 4 188
  "Snowy Road - Theatrical Version" (눈길) 2017/03/01 74 128 641
  "Gag Powerful Man" (만담강호) 2017/03/22 38 1 157
  "Bluebeard" (해빙) 2017/03/01 36 1 203 346
  "The Artist: Reborn" (아티스트: 다시 태어나다) 2017/03/09 31 6 016
❎ Try Ad-free