OKJA Powerful in Limited Release
With a trio of major new offerings by Korean directors, the local industry finally rallied to gain a majority share, clinching 63% of sales, though admissions were a little light with just 1.68 million seats filled.
Opening in a commanding first place was
LEE Joon-ik’s latest period drama, the Colonial Era independence fighter tale
Anarchist from Colony with
LEE Je-hoon. With 818,000 entries (USD 5.91 million) recorded over the weekend and 1.18 million tickets (USD 7.99 million) sold in its first five days, the film is well on its way to success.
Sliding 72% from its commanding debut was the latest Transformers, which hasn’t caught on in Korea like previous installments. Another 356,000 viewers (USD 2.65 million) gives the title 2.42 million admissions (USD 17.5 million) in 12 days.
After a decent opening day,
CJ Entertainment’s action noir
REAL, a vehicle for Asian superstar
KIM Soo-hyun, crashed before ending the weekend with a paltry 165,000 spectators (USD 1.19 million). The film, which has been massacred by local press, has recorded 374,000 sales (USD 2.36 million) since Wednesday.
Opening in fourth place despite not being made available at 93% of the multiplexes in the country is
BONG Joon-ho’s hotly anticipated
Okja, which opened day and date in theaters and on streaming service Netflix. Though shown on just 100 screens at smaller venues, the film recorded 88,500 admissions (USD 601,000) over the weekend and 117,000 viewers (USD 785,000) in its first four days.
Fifth place went to The Mummy, down another 75% for 41,000 entries (USD 296,000), giving it 3.66 million admissions (USD 26.55 million) overall.
Hollywood looks set to quickly reclaim control of the charts with this week’s release of Spider-Man: Homecoming.