Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.06.16 - 2017.06.18

"The Mummy" narrowly outplays new local drama "A Day - 2017"...

Advertisement

Jo Seon-ho's "A Day - 2017" (Kim Myung-min and Byun Yo-han) arrived last Wednesday and came close to toppling the latest "The Mummy" reboot at the top of the pile. Jo was the assistant director for four previous films (including "Killer Toon" and "Once Upon a Time in Seoul") but "A Day - 2017" is his first in the driving seat. Like the 1993 American drama "Groundhog Day", the film's protagonist finds himself caught in a loop as he frustratingly relives the same day over and over again. This day, however, is tragic because the lead's daughter is killed in an accident and he has to rush around to try and prevent that from happening, again. From 781 screens around the country, Jo's debut captured 28.36% of the sales (480,790 admissions), just 18,000 less than this week's reigning feature.

Alex Kurtzman's remake of "The Mummy" entered the fray at the beginning of the month and went straight to number one last weekend. Week two from Kurtzman's action outing (which stars Tom Cruise, a popular talent in Korea) saw it add 498,268 admissions (30.11%), which brings its total tally in Korea now to 3.2 million, or $23.8 million. Currently, "The Mummy" is the sixth highest-grossing film of the year behind the most successful Japanese anime of all time, "Your Name" (3.6 million admissions) and the high-octane American film, "Fast and Furious 8" (3.6 million).

Last weekend's number two, Jung Byung-gil's action film "The Villainess" starring Kim Ok-vin, grabbed 14.85% (247,163 admissions), followed by one of the most popular superhero films of the year: DC Films' "Wonder Woman". Worldwide, Patty Jenkins' modern update on the classic DC hero has made over $571.8 million; in Korea, the film's weekend haul of 128,632 admissions (7.56%) now pushes DC's latest to just over 2 million admissions ($14.8 million).

"Our President", a documentary by Lee Chang-jae about the former South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, remained unmoved in fifth with 84,115 admissions (4.88%). Although the film is only nineteenth in the list of the year's top performers, it is the highest nonfiction film of the year with just under 2 million admissions (1.7 million, or $11.98 million). The fifth instalment in the popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" series of films, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No" (with Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, and Brenton Thwaites), fell two places to settle in sixth with 73,499 admissions (4.39%).

In addition to Jo Seon-ho's debut, only three other new films made it into this weekend's top ten, all of which are foreign animations: "Big Fish & Begonia", an epic fantasy from China, captured 1.84% of the sales (32,520 admissions) during its first weekend out; "Richard the Stork" and "MULLEWAPP 2 - A Pig's Tale" from Germany earned 1.56% (29,087 admissions) and 1.02% (19,520) respectively. The final spot fell to DreamWorks Animation's "Boss Baby" starring Alec Baldwin and Steve Buscemi. "The Boss Baby" (based on the children's book "The Boss Baby" by Marla Frazee) has been active in Korea's top ten since early May, and with the 9,487 admissions (0.49%) the animation claimed here, the film's bottom line in Korea now moves to 2.4 million, or $16.6 million.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2017.06.16 - 2017.06.18 (www.kobis.or.kr)

# Films Release date Week-end Total
1 "The Mummy"   498 303 3 240 852
2 "A Day - 2017" (하루) 2017/06/15 480 807 565 911
3 "The Villainess" (악녀) 2017/06/08 247 180 927 048
4 "Wonder Woman"   128 639 2 080 026
5 "Our President" (노무현입니다) 2017/05/25 84 185 1 722 970
6 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales"   73 503 3 006 930
7 "Big Fish & Begonia" (大魚海棠)   32 519 45 433
8 "Richard the Stork" (Überflieger - Kleine Vögel, großes Geklapper)   29 087 33 477
9 "Mullewapp - A pig Tale" (Mullewapp - Eine schone Schweinerei)   19 520 21 755
10 "The Boss Baby"   9 487 2 443 325
Korean movies only  
  "Anarchist from Colony" (박열) 2017/06/28 6 664 9 111
  "Warriors of the Dawn" (대립군) 2017/05/31 4 805 815 883
  "Karaoke Crazies" (중독노래방) 2017/06/15 4 364 6 273
  "The Merciless" (불한당: 나쁜 놈들의 세상) 2017/05/17 2 445 924 602
  "Suh-Suh Pyoung, Slowly and Peacefully" (서서평, 천천히 평온하게) 2017/04/26 1 770 111 531
  "Jane" (꿈의 제인) 2017/05/31 1 501 18 640
  "Grey Youth Choir - Another Dream" (청춘 합창단 - 또 하나의 꿈) 2017/06/15 1 473 5 041
  "I Am a Cat" (나는 고양이로소이다) 2017/06/08 1 025 6 570
  "The Sheriff In Town" (보안관) 2017/05/03 989 2 585 158
  "Yongsoon" (용순) 2017/06/08 979 10 120

- Christopher Wheeler

❎ Try Ad-free