[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.07.03 ~ 2015.07.05

Taylor's new "Terminator" shoots and scores…

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Last week Kim Hak-soon's war drama "Northern Limit Line" managed to dislodge the record-breaking "Jurassic Park" at the top of the chart. This past weekend, however, saw another foreign favourite come back from the archives to thrill audiences yet again with its dystopian take on future days.

"Terminator Genisys" hit Korean screens on the 2nd and has emerged victorious in the first week of July as it claimed 1.2 million admissions (44%) across 1,113 screens for first place. This is the fifth in the "Terminator" series of films (which started back in 1984) and stars the series' iconic hero Arnold Schwarzenegger alongside Jason and Emilia Clarke for yet another righteous rage against the machines.

"Northern Limit Line" was still a hot favourite following its strong opening last weekend and attracted just under a million admissions (33%) to move its total tally now to 3.2 million ($21.9M). That meant that between Kim Hak-soon's war drama and Alan Taylor's new "Terminator" they managed to capture over 75% of the tickets sales. The closest rival to this monopoly came in the form of the massively successful "Jurassic World", which managed 353 thousand admissions (12%) as it slowly trickles down the Korea chart. "Jurassic World" has now amassed nearly $39 million from South Korean audiences; worldwide the film has already grossed over 1.3 billion.

_Kwak_Gyeong-taek's "The Classified File" (starring Kim Yun-seok and Yoo Hae-jin) fell just the one place to fourth in light of Taylor's comeback, and did so with close to 200K admissions (6.6%); marking the watershed in this week's top ten of the have, and have nots. In fifth place, and also down one, came Kim Seong-je's adaptation of Son Aram's original telling of the Yongsan Crisis: "Minority Opinion". The film, which stars a host of acting talent including Yoon Kye-sang, Yoo Hae-jin, Kim Ok-vin, and Lee Kyung-young, claimed just 36 thousand admissions across its 217 screens to feature in fifth.

The German animation "Coconut: The Little Dragon 3D" entered the chart in sixth place with 26K going its way (0.8%), and was followed by Seth MacFarlane's "Ted 2" (the sequel to the popular 2012 film, "Ted") with 18 thousand (0.7%). David Gelb's science fiction horror flick "The Lazarus Effect" was next,squeezing out 13 thousand in support (0.5%) during its first weekend in Korea, but was closely tailed by the Japanese film "Midnight Dinner" on 13 thousand (0.5%). Lastly, the top performers of the first weekend of July was rounded out yet by another popular Japanese import: "Shimajiro Wow! Shimajiro and Big Tree Island". It collected 7.3 thousand stubs across just 74 screens (0.2%).

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.07.03 - 2015.07.05 (www.kobis.or.kr)

- C.J. Wheeler (@Woolgatherist; KoreaOnTheCouch)