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Korea Box Office Weekend Slumps as Holiday Effect Evaporates

Patrick Frater
·2-min read

Local thriller “On The Line” held on to top spot at the South Korean box office charts. But its weak total showed that the boost to cinemas from the Chuseok holidays had been short-lived.

“On the Line” managed $1.56 million in its second weekend, a score which was only 28% down on its debut, according to data from Kobis, the box office tracking service provided by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That gave it a 39% share of the weekend total, ahead of “Miracle: Letters to the President” with $647,000 and a 16% share, and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” with $529,000 and a 13% share.

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The day-by-day figures reveal that “On The Line” enjoyed two days with $1 million takings, on Tuesday and Wednesday, at the height of the holiday. But, with many people returning to work later in the week, the film’s Thursday and Friday scores were down to just $317,000 and $330,000 respectively. After twelve days on release, the film’s cumulative total stands at just $7.99 million.

“Miracle,” which released on the same day, Sept. 15, in order to capitalize on the full Chuseok effect, has a 12-day total of $3.58 million. “Shang-Chi” which released on Sept. 1, has a cumulative of $14.4 million.

The weekend saw no significant new releases and the nationwide aggregate box office for the Friday-Sunday period was $3.99 million. That made it the quietest cinema-going weekend in several months.

Scrambling for lower places in the chart, Japanese animation, “Crayon Shin-chan: Scribble Kingdom and Almost Four Heroes” took fourth place with $241,000, and relegated “Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle” to fifth with $223,000. Their cumulatives are now $1.03 million and $1.26 million respectively.
“Escape From Mogadish,” the year’s highest grossing film, took $207,000 over the weekend to boost its two-month cumulative to $29.0 million.

“Candyman,” in seventh place took $166,000 in its second weekend, for a 12-day total of 361,000.

The weak performances by some of the most anticipated Korean films of the year, sets up the prospect that the full year box office will swing in favor of imported titles. The final quarter looks set to be dominated by Hollywood. James Bond franchise film “No Time To Die” will open on Wednesday (Sept. 29), to be followed by “Venom 2: Let There Be carnage” on Oct. 13. “Dune is signaling an October release, with Marvel’s “Eternals” teasing an unspecified November outing. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is headed for a December release.

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