With no major new releases, sales for the latest session were down 20% as 423,000 admissions were recorded over the weekend. Animated fare and a hit American indie dominated the charts, leaving the local market to struggle with just 4% of sales as distributors continued to hold back their content during the pandemic.
The award-winning film Minari from Korean American director Lee Isaac CHUNG was down just 36% in its sophomore weekend during which it clinched the top spot again with 130,000 sales (USD 1.08 million). To date, the film has welcomed 497,000 viewers (USD 3.97 million).
Still a potent threat as it rose one spot and 5% during its seventh weekend of wide release was the hit Japanese animation Demon Slayer Mugen Train: The Movie. The film added 93,000 viewers (USD 796,000), raising its total to an impressive 1.2 million entries (USD 10.19 million).
Slowing 38% in its second weekend was the Disney animation Raya and the Last Dragon, which filled 69,000 seats (USD 568,000) over the weekend, with 220,000 sales (USD 1.81 million) banked to date.
The action film Re-Start, a low-budget action vehicle for Mel GIBSON, kicked off its run in fourth place as it welcomed 23,000 spectators (USD 182,000), with 29,000 tickets (USD 221,000) sold over its first four days.
The Pixar hit Soul was down 34% in week seven, giving it another 22,000 sales (USD 195,000), which was just enough to cross the 2 million viewers (USD 16.35 million) mark and edge out Tenet to become the most successful foreign film in Korea to be released during the pandemic.
As of Monday morning, Demon Slayer Mugen Train: The Movie is leading the reservations charts as it angles to possibly rise to first place during its eighth week in the charts. The Two Towers and The Return of the King, the second and third The Lord of the Rings films, are also both being re-released this week.