Korean Box Office Report: September 3/4

This makes the chances of doing well for Marrying The Mafia 2 very likely. Also, the ‘12 and Over’ rated ‘Duelist’ will attract a lot of teenager fans (because of its popular stars Ha Ji-Won and Kang Dong-Won), and film aficionados (fans of Lee Myung-Se or genre cinema in general). If there’s any film that might fall right in the middle, and suffer as a result, that might be Hur Jin’Ho’s ‘April Snow.’ Being rated 18 never hurt the chances of films like ‘올드보이’ (’Oldboy’) and recently ‘친절한 금자씨’ (’Sympathy For Lady Vengeance’), but bad reviews might. But, even if it does badly in Korea, 9 other countries in love with Yonsama might make that failure a little sweeter. If I had to predict a result, I’d vote for April Snow at Number 4 with a disappointing result, Dongmakgol staying strong in the top 3, Marrying The Mafia on second with a better than expected number, and Duelist at Number One. What’s for sure is that Korean films will completely dominate next week’s box office, which is the important thing.

Jang Jin’s ‘박수칠 때 떠나라’ (’The Big Scene’) continues to do well, reaching 2,400,000 tickets sold. It’s likely that, without the huge success of ‘Dongmakgol,’ the film could have become even more successful. It’s nonetheless an excellent result for Jang, who’s becoming one of the most popular directors in the country. As for the other Korean films in the Top 10, Lee Beom-Soo’s latest comedy ‘이대로, 죽을 순 없다’ (’Short Time’) did reach a very respectable 820,000 tickets, but its chances of reaching the Million mark are slim at best. Also, Park Chan-Wook’s ‘친절한 금자씨’ (’Sympathy For Lady Vengeance’) still remains in the Top 10, despite selling just a few thousand tickets to add to its 3.65 Million score.

1 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 35.6% - 6,303,468
2 박수칠 때 떠나라 (The Big Scene) - 15.2% - 2,400,000
3 Guess Who? - 9.7% - 116,000
4 Crimson Rivers 2 - 7.8% - 128,000
5 Land of The Dead - 5.9% - 93,000
6 Bewitched - 5.8% - 180,000
7 In Good Company - 5.3% - 130,000
8 이대로, 죽을 순 없다 (Short Time) - 4.3% - 820,000
9 After The Sunset - 3.4% - N/A
10 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) - 2.0% - 3,650,000

Via Film2.0, Cine21 and nKino