[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.03.21 ~ 2014.03.23

"Noah" floats to the top with a torrent of tickets...

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It was a spirited beginning for Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" as the crowds flooded the theatres for this biblical epic. Aronofsky's powerful, but controversial, account of Noah's Ark opened its account in first, claiming 950,864 admissions (54.2%) over 951 screens to secure the top spot. The Korean box office has been unstable these past six weeks as no film has been able to hold the highest honour for more than a weekend; with the latest dethronement being Lee Sook-yeon's "Thread of Lies" which sunk to second here with just 333,544 (17.9%). However "Noah" enjoyed the highest first place haul since early February and will hope its glory will be more than just a flash in the pan.

Last weekend Lee Sook-yeon's "Thread of Lies" took gold with the modest tally of just 447K, but despite falling down a spot the drama can still celebrate as it recently crossed the million admissions mark. The French-American mystery-thriller "Non-Stop" followed in third with 113,149 admissions (6.3%) of its own, while the animatic hyperbole of "300: Rise of an Empire" settled in fourth with just under 100K (5.8%). Both "Non-Stop" and "300" opened in first when they were released (with 447,452 and 661,909 respectfully), but both were supplanted after only a week of southern glory.

The critically acclaimed comedy-drama "The Grand Budapest Hotel", by director/writer Wes Anderson, made its way to Korea last week, but amassed a less-than-stunning 72,903 admissions (4.3%) over just 163 screens. Hwang In-ho's "Monster", starring Lee Min-ki and Kim Go-eun, has found it tough to find footing since it came out two weeks ago. The action thriller managed just 60,327 admissions (3.5%) here in week two to gentle nudge its total tally now to 497,199 ($3.6M), while the Oscar-winner "12 Years a Slave" claimed seventh with 28,539 (1.3%) of its own.

Hwang Dong-hyuk's "Miss Granny", the most successful Korean release this year, is basking in its ninth week in top ten now, and during that impressive stint the comedy drama has amassed almost 9M admissions ($57.9). The film got a helpful holiday bump over the Lunar New Year break and has remained in the public's favour ever since. "Miss Granny" occupied eighth position over the weekend with 26,539 admissions (1.4%) over 198 screens, down three places from fifth position which it held last weekend with 69K stubs. Closing out the weekend's successes were "Ploddy The Police Car 2" (17,088 – 0.8%), and the French adventure drama "Belle and Sebastien" which earned the interest of more than 16K Korean filmgoers (0.8%).

What's coming out next week in Korea? [HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...

Last weekend's report: [HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2014.03.14 ~ 2014.03.16

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2014.03.21 - 2014.03.23 (www.kobis.or.kr)

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com; @KoreaOnTheCouch)