Weekly Box Office Report for February Week 1-2

The First Slam Dunk claimed first place at the weekly box office for the first week of February (January 30-February 5). The film depicts the dreams and passion for basketball of the five players of the Shohoku High School’s basketball team as they take on the challenges to follow their dream of winning the national championship. The feature added 426,000 viewers over the timeframe. In second place was Avatar: The Way of Water, which tells the story of the family of Jake Sully and Neytiri on Pandora as they go on a long journey to escape new threats. It accumulated KRW 2.78 billion as it filled 194,000 seats. Banking KRW 1.76 billion with 180,000 entries, The Point Men had to settle for third place after two weeks in the top spot. In fourth was this week’s new entry Babylon, which recorded sales of KRW 958 million as it welcomed 96,000 spectators. As it sold 94,000 tickets (KRW 939 million), the Taiwanese fantasy romance Someday or One Day rounded up the top five.  

Weekly Box Office Chart for the 1st Week of February 

Japan’s Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight hung on to the first place among independent/arthouse films. The movie tells the love story of Maori, a high school girl who suffers from anterograde amnesia, which makes her forget her previous day the next morning, and Toru, an ordinary high school boy who was living a boring life until he met Maori. Debuting in second place was Aftersun, which collected 74.6 million won in sales and drew 7,518 people. The Korean Next Sohee (KRW 28 million, 3,000 admissions) entered the chart at number three, while Irma Vep (KRW 24.8 million in gross for 2,000 admissions) debuted in fourth place sales-wise but came fifth in terms of admissions. Closing out the weekly gross top five but clinging to fourth in terms of spectators was Passion Simple (KRW 24.1 billion for 2,400 admissions).  

Independent and Arthouse Films Weekly Box Office Chart for the 1st Week of February 

In the second week of February (February 6-12), The First Slam Dunk claimed its second week win. With 509,000 admissions added over the week, it is now set to hit the 3 million mark in the coming days. Hanging onto the second place was Titanic, which was re-released in a 4K 3D remastered version to commemorate its 25th anniversary. It grossed KRW 3.3 billion as it welcomed 223,000 viewers. Coming in third place was James Camron’s other title in the charts, Avatar: The Way of Water, as it banked another KRW 1.8 billion won, with 127,000 tickets sold. Down one spot was The Point Men as it grossed KRW 758 million, adding 88,000 admissions. The fifth place was taken by Babylon, which accumulated KRW 637 million with 64,000 seats filled.

Weekly Box Office Chart for the 2nd Week of February

Next Sohee rose to the pole position in the independent and arthouse film chart for the second week of February. Sohee, a 17-year-old high school student who is suffering abuse while undertaking mandatory field training at a call center, and Yujin, a detective whose current investigation leads her to take an interest in the same call center a few months later, it posted KRW 348 million in sales, while it reached 36,000 admissions. Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight continued to enjoy a long tail as it dropped only one spot, boosting its total by KRW 284 million as it drew 27,000 spectators. In third with KRW 97 million in gross and 9,800 tickets sold was Aftersun. In fourth and fifth places were two other new entries in the charts: The Twin, which was watched by 6,200 people for KRW 60 million in gross, followed by Holy Spider (sales KRW 46 million, 4,900 viewers).

Independent and Arthouse Films Weekly Box Office Chart for the 2nd Week of February 

The total number of films released in the first week of February was 28, an increase of 7 from last week (21). It then went down to 15 in the second week. Total gross for the first week was KRW 16.3 billion while total admissions were down 50% from the previous week’s session to 1.48 million. Total gross stayed at the same level in Week 2, while the total number of spectators slowed down slightly to 1.44 million.    

Weekly Total Gross and Market Shares from January Week 3 to February Week 2