With school still out and a strong chorus of tentpole releases, the Korean box office is maintaining its hot streak after recording the biggest weekend of the year to date with 4.68 million tickets sold (USD 31.76 million), of which 64% were for local releases.

 

Debuting in pole position with a 41% market share and 1.92 million viewers (USD 13.13 million), Veteran marked a career high opening for director RYOO Seung-wan (The Berlin File, 2013), as well as star HWANG Jung-min, whose most recent film Ode to My Father became the market’s second biggest film of all time earlier this year. Co-starring YOO Ah-in and OH Dal-su (also featuring in this week’s number two film), the action-comedy scored strongly with critics and is already benefiting from strong word of mouth.

 

Staying in second place in its third week was CHOI Dong-hoon's hit period action film Assassination, which fell only 30% and added 1.08 million spectators (USD 7.36 million), for a running total of 8.97 million (USD 59.46 million). The star-driven film is expected to become the 12th Korean film (15th overall) to cross the 10 million admissions mark over the coming days.

 

Unable to withstand the local blockbusters, Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation slipped to third after a strong debut. It receded 52% for 941,985 viewers (USD 6.57 million) over the frame, giving it an accumulated 4.72 million (USD 32.01 million) to date. Though already a success, the fifth installment in the secret agent franchise seems to have been the casualty of too many action-driven blockbusters coming out at the same time. It is uncertain whether it will manage to catch up with its predecessor’s 7.58 million admissions total (USD 66.97 million).

 

Rounding out the top five, Dreamworks’ Minions dropped 50%, adding 319,487 viewers (USD 2.01 million) for a 1.81 million total (USD 11.2 million) and Inside Out, which dropped 44% in its fifth outing. The Pixar hit found another 186,081 viewers (USD 1.2 million), bringing its haul to 4.54 million (USD 29.68 million), the third highest score for an animated film in Korea.

 

Meanwhile, it was a close race on the diversity chart with the new French version of Diary of a Chambermaid eking out a narrow victory with 4,559 tickets sold (USD 30,672) as Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy fell to second place with 4,238 viewers (USD 29,546) and a 20,389 admissions total (USD 137,515).

 

Entering the fray this week will be the period action epic Memories of the Sword, with LEE Byung-hun and JEON Do-yeon, and the family comedy Wonderful Nightmare, with UHM Jeong-hwa and SONG Seung-heon.