[HanCinema's Film Review] Korean Weekend Box Office 2012.11.09 ~ 2012.11.11

HanCinema's Korean Box Office Review 

(2012.11.09 ~ 2012.11.11)

Jo Sung-hee's "A Werewolf Boy" enjoyed its second week at the top of the pile as it swiftly overtook "Unbowed" (3,434,694) as the ninth highest grossing Korean film of 2012. Not since "Masquerade"'s opening weekend has a film captured this much of the ticket sales. Its 51.6% (1,333,842) more than doubled its closest rival as Sung-hee's latest pushed on to 3,603,946 admissions. In general the Korea films were slightly in the minority this week, with a few new foreign flicks making their play for the Korean public's interest.

Jung Byung-gil's "Confession of Murder" managed to climb four positions to second. Last week it sat at sixth with 49,809 (2.6%), but it has fallen in good favour with audiences and improved it position to second with 568,580 (23.8%) admissions. This sudden increase can also be attributed to it having more than double the amount of screenings than it did last week. At number three is everybody's favourite secret agent 007. "Skyfall" has claimed 2,119,975 admission in Korea thus far but appears to be running off of pure hype and marketing rather than actual enthusiasm and interest. 222,365 (8.9%) of "Skyfall"'s total was earned this past weekend from 350 screenings around Korea. "Masquerade" is still raking in ticket sales for its already bloated admissions count of almost 12 million! "Masquerade" was release on the 13th September and has been delighting audiences consistently ever since, and it still has over 300 screenings to keep that total ticking over!

"Upside Down" is romantic drama from the U.S by director Juan Diego Solanas. It came into the charts on the 8th and its first weekend spell saw it walk away with 94,032 admissions (3.7%). It was followed by the British drama "Now is Good" by Ol Parker that stars Dakota Fanning and Olivia Williams. "Now is Good" has not impressed thus far, and the film claimed just 34,752 (1.1%) over the weekend. Next is "Jungle Emperor Leo", a Japanese animation that follows the last half of Osamu Tezuka's epic manga "Jungle Taitei"; it claimed 25,189 (0.9%) over 109 screens.

Looking at the lower end of the list now and Pang Eun-jin's "Suspect X" took a four place hit to settle at number eight. Last week "Suspect X" held forth with 108,246 (5.3%), however this past weekend it managed to claim a soft 22,640 (0.9%) admissions over 192 screenings. "Suspect X" came out on the 18th September and since then it has amassed 1,534,541 admissions. At number nine is the American thriller "Argo" by Ben Affleck; a film that is roughly based on Tony Mendez's, a ex-CIA agent, account of the 1979 Iran Hostage crisis. Lastly, "Brave" might have enjoyed it last time in the top ten; with this past weekend adding just 9,711 to put to film on 1,222,736 admissions. "Brave" has been in top ten for seven weeks straight now but has not been able to make inroads towards a respectable admissions. 

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2012.11.09 - 2012.11.11 (www.kobis.or.kr)

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