STEEL RAIN Pours on THE LAST JEDI’s Parade

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STEEL RAIN Pours on THE LAST JEDI’s Parade

Dec 19, 2017

Writer by Pierce Conran
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North Korea Action-Drama Crushes STAR WARS in Korea

The end of year period began with a bang in Korea, but not the way it did in the rest of the world as Disney’s latest Star Wars installment failed to top the market, despite record openings elsewhere. Sales were up over 30% week-on-week to 2.5 million admissions (a figure that is likely to rise further in the next few weeks) and local titles dominated with a 69% share.

Four years after his hit The Attorney dominated the end-of-year period, director YANG Woo-suk’s North Korea-themed Steel Rain is off to a great start in the same time frame, having shifted 1.38 million tickets (USD 10.47 million) during its first weekend, and scoring 1.63 million sales (USD 12.15 million) since Thursday. The action-drama with JUNG Woo-sung and KWAK Do-won faces stiff competition in the next few weeks but even a slight hold next weekend would ensure a successful run.

Opening far behind in second place was Star Wars: The Last Jedi, once again unable to top the market just as the previous two Disney-released Star Wars titles failed to do so the previous two winters. The film’s 523,000 weekend entries (USD 4.28 million), and 639,000 sales over four days (USD 5.18 million), was down over 40% from the debut of The Force Awakens two years ago, further compounding the franchise’s negligible impact in the market.

Though they dropped 40% and 63%, respectively, local animation Pororo, Dinosaur Island Adventure and Japanese anime Mary and the Witch’s Flower held on to third and fourth on the chart with 178,000 viewer (USD 1.26 million) and 99,000 spectator (USD 692,000) weekends, bringing their totals to 558,000 (USD 3.9 million) and 494,000 admissions (USD 3.46 million) to date.

Local thrillers succumbed to the competition as Forgotten dropped three spots to fifth with 85,000 new sales (USD 631,000) for a 1.35 million viewer (USD 9.56 million) haul, while The Swindlers was down five spots to sixth as another 78,000 spectators (USD 587,000) brought it to 3.99 million admissions (USD 28.6 million).

Local fantasy epic Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds is poised to do major business next frame and is already comfortably topping the reservations chart. Meanwhile, local star-studded political drama 1987: When the Day Comes has been drawing strong notices from critics before its opening next week.

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