Historical thriller Harbin held its top spot at Korea’s box office on its third outing, taking 38% of all ticket sales across a relatively slower
Historical thriller Harbin held its top spot at Korea’s box office on its third outing, taking 38% of all ticket sales across a relatively slower weekend.
The film, directed by Woo Min-ho, added $2m from January 10-12 to reach a cume of $27.1m from 4.1 million admissions since its release on December 24, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service. South Korean outfit CJ ENM recently revealed sales of the feature to 117 countries.
The overall performance of the Korean box office over the weekend was down 37% year-on-year.
Maintaining its second-place position was Firefighters, which earned $582,000, bringing its gross takings to $23m. The film, based on the 2001 Hongje-dong arson fire, had previously pledged to donate a portion of each ticket sold to the building of the National Fire Hospital. Due to its unexpected box office success, its donation total is estimated to be $300,000.
Debuting in third place, sex comedy Forbidden Fairytale took $420,000. The film stars Park Ji-hyun (Hidden Face) as a children’s book author who, after an unexpected twist of fate, transitions into writing adult fiction. The feature is distributed by Barunson E&A.
Now in its second weekend, Hollywood title Sonic The Hedgehog 3 placed fourth with weekend earnings of $337,000. This brings its cume to $1.7m and puts the animated sequel on track to exceed its 2023 prequel’s takings of $1.96m.
Local animation Pororo: Underwater Adventure remained steadfast in fifth with $334,000. Also in its second weekend, the latest instalment in the beloved family franchise has grossed $1.6m to date. The franchise’s previous cinematic releases, Pororo: Dragon Castle Adventure and Pororo Popstar Adventure took $3m in 2022 and $2.5m in 2023 respectively.
Noir thriller Bogota: City Of The Lost secured the sixth spot with $221,000. The film, which premiered at Busan in October, features Song Joong-ki (Hopeless) as a adolescent man navigating Bogota’s black market economy. The film has grossed $2.5m since its release on December 31.
In seventh place, Japanese anime Crayon Shin-Chan: Our Dinosaur Story added $209,000 to its earnings for a cume of $4.5m.
In eighth, Jon M Chu’s musical adaptation Wicked earned $208,000 over the weekend, for a cume of $14.5m.
Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King claimed ninth, adding $201,000 and bringing its total earnings to $5.4m. The 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King earned $28m at the Korean box office.
Disney animation Moana 2 followed in tenth with $159,000, bringing its cumulative box office total to $21.9m. The sequel has far exceeded the first instalment, which earned $12m in 2017.
COMMENTS