BURNING Cools Off in 3rd Place Debut
Mid-May crowned a new superhero at the box office as business picked up. Meanwhile, an acclaimed new local entry failed to fire up the charts, keeping the local market share down with just 15% of the 2.18 million admissions recorded over the weekend, versus the 81% share for Hollywood.
Crashing into the first place was the foul-mouthed superhero sequel Deadpool 2, which brought in 1.36 million spectators (USD 11.85 million) over the frame and has already sold 1.97 million tickets (USD 16.74 million) over its first five days, which is about 20% ahead of its 2016 predecessor.
Finally relinquishing its hold on the top spot during its fourth weekend was the Marvel smash Avengers: Infinity War. Down 64%, it added another 304,000 admissions (USD 2.48 million) to push its total to a staggering 10.69 million entries (USD 88.19 million), which puts it just over the previous Avengers to become the second most successful foreign film to ever screen in Korea and the 18th best-selling title in the market overall.
Despite a big splash at the Cannes Film Festival, where it became one of the most critically acclaimed films to ever screen in competition,
LEE Chang-dong’s latest work
BURNING met with a lukewarm response at the Korean box office. The arthouse film, which stars
YOO Ah-in,
Steven YEUN and
JUN Jong-seo, managed 221,000 viewers (USD 1.88 million) over the weekend and 278,000 spectators (USD 2.32 million) over its first four days.
The animated title Peter Rabbit debuted in fourth place with 102,000 tickets (USD 749,000) sold over the frame and 112,000 entries (USD 816,000) recorded since Wednesday.
Crashing in its sophomore stint on the charts was the local comedy
LOVE+SLING, which slid 80% for another 78,000 admissions (USD 605,000), raising its total to 725,000 spectators (USD 5.67 million).
Deadpool 2 will remain a threat this coming week as a pair of major new titles is poised to debut.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is expected to perform well elsewhere but in Korea, the film is unlikely to make a large showing. More promising is
LEE Hae-young’s action-thriller
Believer, a remake of Johnny TO’s
Drug War.