Korean Weekend Box Office 2012.07.27 ~ 2012.07.29

HanCinema's Korean Box Office Review 

(2012.07.27~ 2012.07.29)

Choi Dong-hoon's"The Thieves"burst out of the gates in fine style this past weekend. The must anticipated heist thriller grabbed 2,002,215 admissions to topple "The Dark Knight Rises" which open in Korea last week."The Thieves"has been compared to likes of Hollywood's "Ocean's Eleven" series that boasted a star-studded cast that brought in the crowds. In a similar effort"The Thieves"contains some big stars in the form ofKim Yoon-seok,Kim Hye-soo,Lee Jeong-jae,Jeon Ji-hyeon,Simon YamandKim Hae-sook.

It remains to be seen if the "The Dark Knight Rises" will do just that and reclaim the top spot in the coming weeks. This is the last film in the trilogy and the film has already amassed 4,255,530 admissions since its release on the 19th, 891,058 of which came from this last weekend. "The Dark Knight Rises" now jumps ahead of "Architecture 101" and is about to challenge the likes of local hits"Deranged"and "Nameless Gangster" as it climbs up the ranks of the highest grossing film released in Korea for 2012. At number three is the latest "Ice Age" film, it's the forth movie in this popular animation series and its popularity has earned it 359,140 in its opening weekend. Summer in Korea just wouldn't be the same if there wasn't a horror flick thrown in for good measure. This times it's"Horror Stories", an omnibus film that showcases five short stories fromHong Ji-young,Im Dae-woong,Jeong Beom-sik,Kim Gok,Kim SunandMin Gyoo-dong."Horror Stories"entered the race on the 25th and has an put together an admissions count of just 141, 020.

"Deranged"falls three places to settle at five, claiming just 2.00% of the sales compared to last week's 15.70%. It's been a bit of a struggle for this disaster film, it managed to outdo "Spiderman" in the charts, but the likes of "The Dark Knight Rises" and now"The Thieves"is proving too much for it. Still, the film has proven itself as a local favorite with a total of 4,411,353, putting it at number five on the list of highest grossing films of the year. At number six and seven we have two popular Japanese animations for the kids, "Detective Conan The Eleventh Striker" and "Doraemon: Nobita and the Island of Miracles" both came into the top this weekend, claiming just under 2% of the ticket sales between them.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is still here, but not without taking a hit as it falls four places with 9,572 (0.30%). "Midnight in Paris" has been in the top ten for a month now but has only managed to gather 293,982 during that time. Lastly, at number ten is the Korean documentary "SeoTaiji Record of the 8th" bySeo Taijias he documents the making of his 8th album.

Box Office - admissions (www.cine21.com & www.kobis.or.kr)