[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2013.05.03 ~ 2013.05.05

Tony Stark may be under some psychological pressure in his third outing but his Korean fans continued to storm the cinemas in support. "Iron Man 3" once again dominated proceedings over this past weekend, adding 1,865,121 (75%) admissions and bringing its total tally now to almost six million. That places Marvel's blockbuster as the third highest grossing release in Korea for 2013; just behind "The Berlin File" (7.1 Million), which it will surely surpass in the coming week. There were only three new entries that made the top grade this past weekend: Lee Jong-pil's "The Singing Contest, a re-release of "Finding Nemo 3D", and the Japanese animation "One Stormy Night".

"The Singing Contest" (aka "Born to Sing") opened its account with 306,181 admissions (11%). This is comedian/director Lee Jong-pil's first fiction feature, as he directed the documentary piece "Ensemble" last year. Lee's comedy drama stars Kim In-kwon, Ryu Hyun-kyung, Kim Soo-mi, Oh Gwang-rok, Yoo Yeon-seok and Lee Cho-hee. Up one place is the Japanese animation "Crayon Shin-Chan: Arasi Oyobu Ora To Uchi No Princess", adding 95,527 admissions (3.2%) in its second week out in Korea. "Crayon Shin-Cha" managed to outdo Pixar's re-release of the hugely popular "Finding Nemo", whose new 3D veneer attracted 52,187 (2.7%) nostalgic fans.

After a tough few weeks in second, Kang Woo-suk's "Fist of Legend" slipped to fifth with just 50,651 (1.9%). "Fist of Legend" has been patiently hovering in second place behind both "Oblivion" and "Iron Man 3", and now has lost some steam in its fourth week. "One Stormy Night" is the first in a series of children's books by Yūichi Kimura. The tale tells of an unnatural friendship that forms as a goat named Mei and a wolf named Gabu travel together to find the 'Emerald Forest". "One Stormy Night" claimed 26,381 (0.9%) admissions and was followed by "Oblivion" which added just 22,355 (0.8%). "Oblivion" managed to hold down first during the middle weeks of last month and has since moved its efforts in Korea to 1,481,211 admissions.

"Pinocchio" fell three places to eighth with 17,669 (0.56%) and was chased by Jo Dong-oh's "Running Man" which followed with 14,074 (0.47%) of its own. This is the fifth week in the top ten for Jo's second feature, and during that time the action thriller has amassed 1,412,727 admissions. Lastly, Woody Allen's "To Rome with Love" swayed 13,513 (0.54%) filmgoers to one of its 68 screens around the country.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2013.05.03 - 2013.05.05 (www.kobis.or.kr)

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