Report
BLACK MONEY Buys Up First Place
MOONLIT WINTER Strong in Limited Debut
Local films continued to drum up solid business, as a new champion and holdovers gave the Korean industry a 74% edge. All told, 1.82 million tickets were sold over the past frame, a figure that will rise significantly this coming weekend as one of the biggest films of the year opens in a few days.
Veteran filmmaker CHUNG Ji-young has returned to theatres seven years after National Security with the corruption thriller BLACK MONEY, which posted an impressive debut with 781,000 entries (USD 5.94 million). Starring CHO Jin-woong and LEE Ha-nee, the film has accrued 1.05 million admissions (USD 7.81 million) in five days.
Off 59% from its start a week ago was the local action-thriller The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful, which filled another 365,000 seats (USD 2.79 million) to lift its total to a respectable 1.84 million sales (USD 13.63 million).
On its way out of theaters, the local hit KIM JI-YOUNG, BORN 1982 eased another 56% as it sold another 153,000 tickets (USD 1.13 million). The female-driven drama has taken in a stellar 3.49 million viewers (USD 24.74 million) since its launch.
In week three, franchise sequel Terminator: Dark Fate was down 64% as 136,000 spectators (USD 1.02 million) were counted over the weekend, raising its total to 2.31 million entries (USD 16.62 million).
Animated title The Addams Family slowed 53% during its second session, during which it attracted 89,000 moviegoers (USD 606,000), for a running total of 319,000 sales (USD 2.2 million).
Outside of the top five, LIM Dae-hyung’s indie drama Moonlit Winter, which was the closing film of the Busan International Film Festival this year, had a solid debut in ninth place with 24,000 sales (USD 162,000) over the weekend and 35,000 entries (USD 236,000) since its Thursday launch.
Korean films have had a strong few weeks on the charts but all the local holdovers are going to have to take a step back this coming weekend as the Disney giant Frozen 2 enters the marketplace. With close to half a million tickets presold as of Monday morning (83% of all sales), the animated sequel is poised to be a box office giant. Its predecessor is one of only seven foreign films to crack the 10 million admissions barrier in Korea.
