“Oppenheimer” remained the top performing film in South Korea for the third successive weekend. It earned $2.04 million for a 19-day cumulative total of $22.4 million.
The row of wins for “Oppenheimer” demonstrates again Korean audiences appreciation of top acting skills. But it also exposes the weakened selection of competing titles in the Korean market.
The top-ranked new release title was the drama thriller “Don’t Buy the Seller,” which landed in second position, according to weekend data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). It scored just $1.27 million over the weekend and $1.87 million over its opening five days.
That weakness pulled the nationwide cinema box office aggregate below trend and below $10 million for the second successive weekend. Takings across all cinemas between Friday and Sunday were just $7.21 million, down from $9.95 million a week earlier.
Previously, Korean cinemas had enjoyed weekend gross revenues of more than $10 million for the 16 weeks, since the end of April, when cinemagoing broke with a winter and early spring period of hibernation.
Nationwide grosses in August totaled KRW14.6 billion, a figure that was almost identical to both July (KRW14.2 billion) and June (KRW14.5 billion). The market share attained by local films surged back to 65%, driven by the performances of “Smugglers” and “Concrete Utopia.”
Over the latest weekend, “Concrete Utopia” held on to third place. It earned 1.17 million in its fourth weekend of release, for a cumulative total of $26.7 million.
“Honeysweet,” a romance film that was the previous weekend’s top release, slipped to fourth place. It scored $1.07 million, for a 12-day cumulative of $8.25 million.
Pixar animation, “Elemental” continued its physics-defying run at the Korean box office with fifth place. It earned $463,000 over the latest weekend to extend its total to $53 million after 12 weekends on release. That total makes it the second-best performing film of the year in Korea, behind only “The Roundup: No Way Out.”
“Smugglers” earned 376,000 in sixth place. The female-led crime action film now has a cumulative score of $37.1 million, making it the fourth highest film of the year in Korea, and the second highest Korean title.
Korean horror film “Body Parts” earned just $168,000 on its debut weekend (and $256,000 over five days). Another new release, “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” earned $136,000 on its debut weekend (and $226,000 over five days).
“Maya the Bee 3: The Golden Orb,” which released a week earlier, took $62,000 over the latest session, for a cumulative of $226,000 after 11 days. Playing previews ahead of a release on Wednesday, Chinese film “One Week Friends” earned $60,000 and claimed tenth place in the Korean chart.
