Korean Box Office Report: October 29/30

야수와 미녀 (The Beast & The Beauty) was at the top of this week’s box office, beating Bang Eun-Jin’s debut film 오로라 공주 (Princess Aurora) by a few tens of thousand tickets. Certainly not a great start, but the romantic comedy starring Shin Min-Ah and Ryu Seung-Beom should do OK. Reviews were generally on the ‘meh’ side. OK comedy, following more or less the kind of tropes you’d expect it to follow, with good charisma from the two leads and talented Kim Gang-Woo, and the customary final message. With yesterday’s debut of Shin’s latest Drama 이 죽일놈의 사랑 (A Love to Kill) (recording 16% ratings), it’s possible the film will get a little rub if the Drama’s popularity increases - which is likely since competition is not very high.

Rather surprising, since critics were dooming the film to a quick death at the box office (perhaps because it was too smart?), is the second place of ‘Princess Aurora’. Meeting almost unanimously positive reviews from the local press, Bang’s debut banked on the current surge in popularity of the talented Eom Jung-Hwa, who is quickly becoming quite a decent box office draw. The thriller, starring Eom as a serial killer with a motive, was the film with the highest per-screen average, beating leader ‘The Beast & The Beauty’ by almost a hundred people. Although it’s a good result for the thriller, this week’s top two films didn’t exactly set the box office on fire. Of course it’s a combination of their late release compared to the already established melodramas of the season, and the fact we’re entering a transitional period that will last for a couple of weeks. But less than 700,000 tickets in two after three days is not the best of results. Let’s just hope good word of mouth will slowly increase the two films’ scores as the weeks go on.

Eom’s popularity, along with the rest of 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love)‘s huge cast, led Min Gyu-Dong’s omnibus drama to a comfortable third place, as expected reaching the 2 million tickets. The film is still doing extremely well in online pre-order sales (1st last weekend), so it’s likely its run at the box office will continue for quite a while, perhaps even challenging 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine)‘s record for top grossing melodrama of all time. With this result, the film just entered the year’s Top 10, pushing out Moon Geun-Young’s 댄서의 순정 (Innocent Steps).

But if ‘All For Love’ was a nice breath of fresh air from your traditional melodramas, the ‘omnibus melodrama’ format didn’t help 새드무비 (Sad Movie)‘s figures too much. Although it still has some potential to grow, the film hasn’t reached the million tickets yet, and it’s very unlikely it will reach the 2 before it disappears from the Top 10. Although the budget wasn’t particularly high, this is probably the only disappointment of the season as far as melodramas go. ‘You Are My Sunshine’ kept its promises and broke the 3 Million tickets barrier, improving on its own record. Another big success for Jeon Do-Yeon, and perhaps the start of a new career as a leading man for Hwang Jung-Min.

It finally happened: we were talking about it for weeks, but Park Gwang-Hyun’s debut film 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) has reached its target of 8 million tickets sold nationwide. Distributors Showbox pushed the title for a couple of weeks, even though they probably would have made more money giving those screens to the super-hit 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2), but the public rewarded them. With a mere 18 nationwide screens, the film needed a few thousand tickets to break the barrier, and it finally achieved its goal yesterday. Remember when presenting the film a few months ago we thought Showbox’s claim of trying to break the 10 Million mark was bold at best? But 89 days, a good deal of word of mouth and tremendously positive reviews from the local media later, and here we are, celebrating the fourth top grossing Korean film of all time. With the drama hitting DVD shelves around Christmas, and finishing in the final 13 potential nominees for the Best Foreign Film Award at the Oscars, now the ball will be passed on to the overseas audience.

Next week’s releases will surely make an impact on the box office. Not only Moon So-Ri’s latest human drama 사랑해, 말순씨 (Bravo, My Life) looks to be a hit in the making - the comics based on the film released online were a huge success - but it should also solidify her status as one of the top actresses in the country, and perhaps make Lee Jae-Eung the most popular child actor in Korea. Other potential hits up for release are Nakata Hideo’s ラストシーン (Last Scene), Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’ and Nick Park’s ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’.

Korean Films Abroad

Park Chan-Wook’s 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) [Chinese Title 親切的金子, Kind Gum-Ji (Cantonese for Geum-Ja), translation of the original Korean title] closed the weekend at No. 9 of the Hong Kong Box Office. After 18 days of release, the final part of Park’s ‘revenge trilogy’ has made HK$ 2,040,000 (approx US$ 263,000). The film also landed at 10 place in Singapore’s box office Top 10 for last week. With two films on release in the US, Park’s other two parts of the trilogy 올드보이 (Oldboy) and 복수는 나의 것 (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance) did pretty depressing numbers. After an opening day in August of roughly US$9,000, the latter film went on to make a total of US$44,000. ‘Oldboy’ added US$ 295 (!) to its tally, making a total of US$ 705,000 since March.

In Japan, the story of the week was - once again - the success of the melodrama 내 머리속의 지우개 (A Moment To Remember) [Japanese Title 私の頭の中の消しゴム, Eraser in My Head, translation of the original Korean title], starring Jung Woo-Sung and Son Ye-Jin. The film was impressively at the top of the box office, even beating Tsumabuchi Satoshi’s new film 春の雪 (Spring Snow), directed by Yukisada Isao. Released on October 22, the melodrama directed by Lee Jae-Han - the top grossing melodrama of all time in Korea, until ‘You Are My Sunshine’ broke its record - is expected to beat 외출 (April Snow)‘s record as the top grossing Korean film in Japan.

Box Office Top 10 - Weekend of October 29/30

01. 야수와 미녀 (The Beast & The Beauty) - 20.2% - 353,000
02. 오로라 공주 (Princess Aurora) - 19.3% - 306,000
03. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - 17.6% - 2,240,000
04. 새드무비 (Sad Movie) - 11.9% - 950,000
05. The Legend of Zorro - 11.7% - 182,000
06. Monster in Law - 6.4% - 81,000
07. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 3.9% - 3,000,000
08. The Merchant of Venice - 3.0%
09. The Cave - 2.2%
10. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 1.1% - 8,002,594

Per Screen Average Top 10 - Weekend of October 29/30

01. 오로라 공주 (Princess Aurora) - 1,683
02. 야수와 미녀 (The Beast & The Beauty) - 1,596
03. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - 1,566
04. The Legend of Zorro - 1,218
05. Monster in Law - 889
06. 새드무비 (Sad Movie) - 850
07. The Merchant of Venice - 813
08. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 618
09. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 601
10. The Cave - 452

Weekend Market Share
Only Top 10 are considered - Error Margin +/- 5~6%

KOREA: 70.1%
USA: 23.3%

2005 Box Office Top 10

01. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 8,002,594
02. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,600,000
03. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154
04. 공공의 적 2 (Another Public Enemy) - 3,920,000
05. 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) - 3,700,000
06. 마파도 (Mapado) - 3,089,717
07. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 3,000,000
09. 박수칠 때 떠나라 (Murder, Take One) - 2,480,000
09. 혈의 누 (Blood Rain) - 2,274,779
10. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - 2,240,000

All Time Box Office Top 10

01. 태극기 휘날리며 (Taegukgi) - 11,746,135 [2004]
02. 실미도 (Silmido) - 11,074,000 [2003]
03. 친구 (Friend) - 8,180,000 [2001]
04. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 8,002,594 [2005]
05. 쉬리 (Shiri) - 6,210,000 [1999]
06. 공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area) - 5,830,000 [2000]
07. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,600,000 [2005]
08. 조폭 마누라 (My Wife is a Gangster) - 5,250,000 [2001]
09. 가문의 영광 (Marrying the Mafia) - 5,200,001 [2002]
10. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154 [2005]

Via Cine21 1, Cine21 2, Film2.0, nKino, Goo, Mov3, Yahoo Singapore and br /
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