South Korean box office held strong over the weekend, with “Fast X” enjoying a second lap at the head of the field, followed by a growing chasing pack.
“Fast X” earned $3.12 million between Friday and Sunday in Korea, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That was a 38% decline compared with its opening weekend, but pumped the film’s total to a speedy $11.4 million after 12 days.
Three other titles jostled for position ahead of Monday’s Buddha’s Birthday public holiday and delivered multi-million-dollar performances.
“The Roundup: No Way Out” took second place with $2.44 million from previews ahead of its official release on May 31. The film is the third part of the Ma Dong-seok-led comedy-crime-action action franchise that first launched in 2017 with “The Outlaws” and then revived the summer box office last year with a blockbuster second instalment “The Roundup.”
Where “Fast X” earned its 26% market share from 1,530 screens, “The Roundup: No Way Out” earned its 20.3% market share from just 502 screens. That points to a strong win next weekend when its screen count expands
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3” slipped from second place to third with a $2.38 million weekend score. The film became the fastest this year to reach three million spectators and has now been watched by 3.78 million people in the country. In cash terms, the film now has a total of $30.1 million for third place on the 2023 year-to-date chart.
The weekend’s highest-placed official opener was “The Little Mermaid,” which opened in fourth place, despite reports of ‘ratings terrorism’ or deliberately negative reviews. The Disney live action adaptation earned $2.14 million over the weekend and $2.74 million over the five days since its opening on Wednesday.
Those four accounted for 83% of the market and kept the nationwide aggregate total at over $10 million for the fifth successive weekend. Between Friday and Sunday the total was $12.1 million.
A significant way behind the top four, five animated films accounted for the next places. “The Super Mario Bros Movie” took fifth place with $540,000. Since release on April 26, the film has built a cumulative of $16.9 million.
Sixth place belonged to Japanese animation “Crayon Shin-chan: Mononoke Ninja Chimpuden” with $321,000, giving an aggregate of $4.92 million since release on May 4.
“The Adventure of Ice Planet,” a Korean animation about Dooly, a baby dinosaur looking for his mom that first released in 1996, took $275,000 over the weekend and $341,000 over five days.
Japanese title “The Last 10 Years” earned $260,000 in eighth place over three days and $361,000 over its opening five days.
“Suzume” added $195,000 in ninth place. Its total of $42.4 million since March 8 remains the highest of any film released in Korea this year.
“Triangle of Sadness” earned $48,000 in tenth place on its second weekend of release. After 12 days in Korean cinemas the Cannes 2022 winner has accumulated $281,000.
