[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2017.08.11 - 2017.08.13

Local films "A Taxi Driver" and "Midnight Runners" capture 70% of the sales...

Jang Hoon's "A Taxi Driver" added another 1.7 million admissions (40.47%) over the weekend, making it the highest grossing film of the year with just under 8 million admissions. The previous number one, Kim Seong-hoon-III's action outing "Confidential Assignment", scored 7.81 million admissions back in January, but Hoon's fourth feature (after "The Front Line", "Secret Reunion" and "Rough Cut") is still breaking new ground.

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Two new releases followed. Local comedy "Midnight Runners" (which stars Park Seo-joon and Kang Ha-neul as two bookish rookies on a kidnapping case) is Kim Joo-hwan's sophomore film after his 2013 drama "Koala". From 1,056 screens, the film claimed 1.3 million admissions, or $9.3 million (29.77%). In third place with 733,932 admissions (16.74%) entered the American supernatural horror "Annabelle: Creation" by director David F. Sandberg. The film, a prequel to the 2014 "Annabelle", was produced for $15 million and has grossed 32.7 million worldwide.

Since its release late July, "Despicable Me 3" has constantly featured in the upper ranks of the top ten. This past weekend, its third, saw it add another 174,203 admissions (3.65%), moving its total tally now over the 3 million mark ($19.28 million). Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's latest is now just 20,000 admissions shy of breaking into the top ten of the highest-grossing films of the year ("Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" claimed 3.04 million admissions: $21.8 million). After breaking the record for the highest opening day admissions, and then the arrival of Jang Hoon's timely drama, "The Battleship Island" is now starting to drifting down the chart. Director Ryoo Seung-wan's historical action flick drew 114,886 admissions from 538 screens (down from 1,017 last weekend), bringing its total gross now to $43.2 million (6.4 million admissions).

"Son of Bigfoot", a Belgian-French animation, entered the fray to 437 screens and managed 87,653 admissions (1.78%), and was followed by the Japanese sci-fi animation film "Doraemon the Movie 2017: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi" with 65,701 (1.34%) from 351. In eighth place, down three, was Christopher Nolan's WWII blockbuster "Dunkirk". Nolan's $100 million war film has already grossed $339.5 million worldwide; in Korea, since its release late July, it has amassed 2.7 million admissions (1.41%), or $20.7 million.

The latest in the popular Japanese anime series "Detective Conan", "Detective Conan: Crimson Love Letter" by Kobun Shizuno (based Gosho Aoyama's "Case Closed" manga), tumbled from fourth to ninth with 31,454 admissions (0.67%), and the final spot in this weekend's top ten fell to Eleanor Coppola's debut fiction film, "Paris Can Wait" starring Diane Lane. From just 56 screens, Coppola's entry into narrative film claimed 14,820 admissions (0.34%).

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2017.08.11 - 2017.08.13 (www.kobis.or.kr)

- Christopher Wheeler