While the Busan International Film Festival was busily hailing a return to normality the slump at South Korea’s commercial box office deepened dramatically over the most recent weekend.
Between Friday and Sunday, cinemagoing in the United States was worth just $4.20 Million. This was the lowest weekend total since April. It also marks the end of the COVID restriction period that Korean cinemas had.
The weekend’s top film “Life Is Beautiful”The film received the lowest score for first place this year, scoring just $777,000 in weekend box office, according to data provided by Kobiz, the tracking system operated by the Korean Film Council.
It is to its credit that the film rose from second place in its fourth week of release. But it only overtook a “Confidential Assignment 2: International”That has been released for two months and its cumulative four-week amounts to only $5.44 million.
“Confidential Assignment 2”It fell 60% with a weekend score $661,000 and occupied the second slot. It has now amassed $48.0million after seven weeks of release. This is a remarkable score considering the fall downturn.
The gap of two months between Hollywood movie tentpole releases was predicted to cause a slowdown in box office sales. It seems that the Hollywood hiatus has not allowed Korean movies to benefit from it.
Although audiences in Korea were distracted by the BTS concert, which was broadcast live on TV on Saturday night and streamed on Saturday night on streaming, the trend has been downwards ever since August.
That’s a cause for concern as the releasing freeze caused by the prolonged pandemic conditions had led to a backlog of Korean titles unwilling or unable to release into a weak and uncertain marketplace. Some films delayed their cinema releases while others released via streaming to reduce their losses.
Local media reports that in recent days, producers of “The Match,”A sports drama film starring Yoo Ah-in and Lee Byung-hun is being considered for direct-to-streaming. The film’s principal photography wrapped in April 2021.
This weekend: “Crayon Shin-chan: School Mystery! The Splendid Tenkasu Academy”With $570,000, he was third. After three weekends, it now has a cumulative total of $3.85million.
“Orphan: First Kill,”A U.S. horror-crime title was the most popular new release with $514,000 on Friday and Sunday, and $714,000 in its first five days.
“Honest Candidate 2”Fifth place was won by $363,000 It increased the cumulative total of its three-week run to $5.49million.
Internationally-acclaimed “Everything Everywhere All At Once”It opened in sixth position. It cost $278,000 for the weekend and $371 during its five-day opening.
Julia Robert and George Clooney-starring “Ticket to Paradise,”Similarly, Korean audiences were not excited. Over its first five days, it managed $282,000