Though neither claimed the top spot, two new local titles returned the market share advantage to Korea, which claimed 53% of admissions during another busy fall frame that was only 10% down after last week’s blockbuster opening, as 2.21 million tickets were sold overall.

Remaining in first place after a strong debut, Thor: Ragnarok was down a healthy 47% for another 834,000 sales (USD 6.37 million), to bring it to an impressive 3.57 million viewers (USD 25.82 million). The well liked threequel (if we count only standalone Thor films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is already well ahead of its predecessors and may yet breach a few more milestones.

Actor of the moment Don LEE (aka MA Dong-seok) opened with a strong second place debut for the second time this season as his new family comedy title The Bros kicked off with a 606,000 spectator (USD 4.45 million) weekend and 723,000 entries (USD 5.23 million) in four days. That’s a very strong start for the mid-budget title which may in large part be owed to the current success of LEE’s crime thriller THE OUTLAWS, which was only just behind in third place.

Down 44% in its fifth week, KANG Yun-sung’s debut THE OUTLAWS continued to impress with its sleeper run, as it netted another 267,000 admissions (USD 2.05 million) over the weekend, to bring its total to a stunning 6.37 million viewers (USD 46.66 million) to date. The film appears poised to overtake The Battleship Island to become the third most successful homegrown title of the year, unless an end of year title can push it back down to fourth in December.

Opening in a disappointing fourth position was JUNG Ji-woo’s well-reviewed Silent Witness (2013) remake Heart Blackened. The court thriller debuted with 239,000 (USD 1.77 million) entries for the three day and 303,000 (USD 2.2 million) for the four days despite the presence of CHOI Min-shik, PARK Shin-hye and RYU Jun-yeol. Despite a reasonably good reaction from audiences, the film is unlikely to recover after such a slow start.

Japanese melodrama Let Me Eat Your Pancreas was down just 45% in fifth place, adding 75,000 (USD 565,000) spectators to its 346,000 tickets (USD 245,000 million) total. Meanwhile, new Saw franchise entry Jigaw was dead on arrival with a 58,000 viewer (USD 474,000) start, and 77,000 tickets (USD 607,000) sold since Thursday.

Elsewhere on the chart, Irish music drama Once was re-released on its tenth anniversary and collected 13,000 admissions (USD 100,000) in eighth place, to boost its lifetime total to 255,000 viewers (USD 1.58 million).

Korea’s fall thriller season continues this weekend, with the release of the KIM Hye-soo action noir vehicle A Special Lady, which recently had its world premiere at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.