[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2016.12.09 ~ 2016.12.11

"Pandora"'s box office run starts strong...

In the aftermath of the country's political unrest, Park Jeong-woo's thrilling disaster film, "Pandora", entered the fray and shot straight to pole position by capturing 45.5% of the box office pie. The film, Park's fourth after "Dance With The Wind" (2004), "Big Bang" (2007" and "Deranged" (2012), sold 1.1 million admissions across 1,166 screens to dislodge last weekend's number one, Kwon Soo-kyeong's family drama "My Annoying Brother".

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"Pandora" (starring Kim Nam-gil, Kim Young-ae, Moon Jeong-hee and Jung Jin-young) is about a president who sacrifices the lives of citizens to prevent a disaster from occurring. This timely tale was followed by a new foreign entry from America: Damien Chazelle's "La La Land" starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Chazelle's musical made its world premiere back in August at the Venice Film Festival, and the film's first weekend in the Land of the Morning Calm yielded $3.8 million (426,872 admissions; 18.7%).

Kwon Soo-kyeong's "My Annoying Brother" entered in first place last weekend with just under 30% of the sales (598,262), but week two for Kwon's family feud was less impressive: from 603 screens (down 229) it claimed 11.6% (264,231), moving its total tally now to 2.6 million ($17.8 million).

The American 3D computer-animated adventure "Storks" arrived on Wednesday and sold 147,170 admissions (5.6%). "Storks" narrowly outperformed its closest competitor, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", by less than a thousand admissions. With the 146,113 (5.9%) "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" claimed, David Yates's magical fantasy film moved its bottom line in Korea to $32.2 million (4.4 million admissions), making it the twelfth highest-grossing film of year in Korea ahead of "The Handmaiden" (4.2 million) and behind "Zootopia" (4.7 million).

"Missing Woman" fell four places to sixth during its second weekend out. Lee Eon-hee's crime thriller (which stars Uhm Ji-won and Kong Hyo-jin) added 132,779 admissions (5.4%), which brings its total now to just over a million ($6.9 million). The Japanese anime "One Piece Film Gold" opened on Thursday and sold 115,483 (4.6%), followed by the sequel to the 2012 action film "Jack Reacher": "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" (based on Lee Child's novel of the same name) starring Tom Cruise (a favourite here in Korea).

Like "Missing Woman", "Never Go Back" fell four places, and ended up claiming 1.6% of the sales (39,459 admissions) from 354 screens. Nine and ten earned significantly fewer stubs: the British-French drama "I, Daniel Blake" (winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival) and the Japanese anime "Shimajiro's Wow! Shimajiro And The Magical Picture Book" claimed 8,850 (0.4%) and 7,636 (0.3%) respectively.

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2016.12.09 - 2016.12.11 (www.kobis.or.kr)