Korean Box Office Report - January 1
Clear skies... no clouds or wind in sight. Ideal weather you'd say, especially when a good portion of the world is going through a pretty damn cold Winter. But for some filmmakers, those skies should have been populated by either a Typhoon, or a certain Blue Swallow, flying high towards the horizon. The only wind coming from this week's Korean box office was the surprising success of the Historical Drama 왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown). Directed by one of the most pragmatic and down-to-earth producers-cum-directors in Lee Joon-Ik, the film was pushed wildly by some of the best word of mouth any movie released in Korea in 2005 could enjoy. Lee managed to bring to the table what its competitors seemingly lacked: the excitement which was sacrificed in Kwak Kyung-Taek's 태풍 (Typhoon) to showcase all its visual and technological tricks; the kind of Drama which related to viewers, who apparently couldn't warm up to Yoon Jong-Chan's 청연 (Blue Swallow), controversy or not. And, last but not least, the kind of acting which few people expected. It looks like Gam Woo-Sung's talent is finally being recognized after nearly a decade of hard work, as he's being praised by the entire Media for his performance in the film, along with his partner in crime Jung Jin-Young. The end of the year holidays saw two winners then, 'The King and The Clown' and The Chronicles of Narnia, which is more or less sharing the same piece of the pie with the domestic film.
What's interesting is that, once again, the response towards the two films was different depending on the are of the country: Seoul viewers were split over the two films, whereas people in the 지방 (the areas outside Seoul) once again supported the domestic one. The first installment of the 'Narnia' saga, Andrew Adamson's film sold 213,400 tickets from 80 screens in Seoul alone -- against 'The King and the Clown' and its 213,000. But, considering the Korean film had only 68 screens in Seoul, its result is all the more impressive. We reported the film scored an impressive opening day of over 200,000 tickets, and as predicted the number of nationwide screens was increased to over 300, which brought 842,000 tickets for the weekend, for a nationwide total first week of 1,130,000 tickets.
'Narnia' had fewer screens (291), but still managed to sell 716,000 tickets over the weekend, for a total of 961,000. While the Hollywood film has generally been received, I don't think it will hold first place for much longer. The word of mouth for 'The King and The Clown' is reaching levels similar to this summer's sensation at the box office, Park Gwang-Hyun's 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol), and it's only a matter of time before all that translates into more tickets. Although this might quiet down in the next few weeks, I'll go out on a limb and predict this film will enter the Top 10 of 2005, selling at least 2,500,000 tickets. It just seems to have the right combination: it's well acted, well directed, it's not heavy like 'Typhoon' but not superficial either; it features the new idol of Korean teenagers Lee Joon-Gi, and unique, creative performances from the Clown which are creating quite a buzz.
But another film is receiving quite the impressive reaction, as Peter Jackson's King Kong continues to do extremely well. The big ape sold 136,000 tickets over the weekend in Seoul alone, surpassing the 3 Million tickets to land at number 3. Again, word of mouth is really starting to make a difference here, and it's very likely the film will continue to do well, perhaps even selling 4 Million or more tickets. The real loser of the week was 'Typhoon' though: after the initial excitement over the scale and technicalities of the film, reviews and comments on the net are focusing more and more on how predictable the story is, how it's hard to relate or even empathize with the characters, when they're basically cardboard cutouts thrown at the screen to wait for the next big action piece.
Still enjoying an impressive 300 screens release, the film sold around 600,000 tickets over the weekend, adding to its total tally of 3,850,000. It's very, very unlikely the film will go out of the Top 10 until it has reached the all important break even point -- set at 5 Million tickets (budget was around 20 Billion Won, the company takes half the pie, and tickets cost around 7,000 Won, so you do the math...) -- so CJ Entertainment will inevitably continue to push the film, despite the fact it has slowed down considerably. Again, this should serve as a lesson to those who think spending huge amounts of money will justify any shortcoming of the film.
The most disappointing result of the week was that of 청연 (Blue Swallow), though. After receiving excellent reviews, an offensive political tirade against the film hurt its chances of success, in both a direct and indirect way. Let's just imagine the people who brought up the controversy about the film were just doing a service for us poor clueless film viewers, so we wouldn't be fooled into thinking Park Kyung-Won was really a national hero of some sorts. Let's imagine those opinionated commentators, almost all coming from that ultra-conservative 'my Bible is the Chosun Ilbo' facet of Korean society are even mildly interested in films to begin with, and they're not just trying to stir popular emotions with knee-jerk nationalism. Let's imagine... just for the sake of it, that they're choosing their targets without any bias, as they were more or less the same people who came out this Summer and called Park Gwang-Hyun's mega-hit 'Welcome To Kim Il-Sung Land', criticized it for being Anti-American, and went back to their caves.
Let's imagine all that, and think those comments were in good faith. Now, what happens to viewers? People who don't want to watch pro-Japanese films will not go watch 'Blue Swallow', even though people who've seen it even considered it a tad Anti-Japanese if anything, and surely more about Park Kyung-Won and her life (her tragedies, her successes, her love story) than silly politics. But the film was hit negatively in another way, indirectly, because young couples and teenagers who couldn't care less about such issues will be drawn away from the film, afraid it'll be a heavy-handed exercise in political drama. We're talking about a melodrama set in a certain background: not superficial, but still a melodrama, and being Pro or Against Japan isn't the issue here. Park Kyung-Won is the star, not politics.
Thankfully, not everybody bought into those scare tactics, and since we're talking about the end of the year, the film still sold a decent 340,000 tickets. But I doubt it will be able to make much noise (might do a Million, even two if the controversy dies out, but surely not recoup its 10 Billion budget). Another victim of politics, after the ludicrous incident Im Sang-Soo's 그때 그사람들 (The President's Last Bang) was involved in early last year. But there were good news for another film, the sexy comedy 작업의 정석 (The Art of Seduction), which stars Son Ye-Jin and Song Il-Guk. In its second week of release, the film sold 121,000 tickets over the weekend in Seoul, for a total of 1,800,000. Hard to predict what will happen in the next few weeks, as competition is fierce, but it's likely the film will continue to stay in the Top 10, at least until 야수 (Running Wild) and 사랑을 놓치다 (Lost in Love) debut in two weeks.
Next week has two interesting releases: one is the action comedy 싸움의 기술 (The Art of Fighting), which didn't catch fire at the recent press screening, but the aggressive marketing and the theme of the film should be enough for a decent hit, or possibly more. The other is Peter Chan's 如果ㆍ愛 (Perhaps Love), the HK musical starring Ji Jin-Hee. Maybe not enough to challenge the Top 4, but it should be interesting to see which one of the two butts in.
Box Office Top 8 - Weekend of December 30-January 1
1.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
2005 USA - dir. Andrew Adamson [Cast: Tilda Swinton, Jim Broadbent]
Distributed By Disney - 23.7% Share - 2,668 Per Screen Avg. - 291 Screens (New)
961,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
2.
왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown)
2005 KOREA - dir. Lee Joon-Ik [Cast: Gam Woo-Sung, Jung Jin-Young]
Distributed By Cinema Service - 23.6% Share - 3,132 Per Screen Avg. - 304 Screens (New)
1,130,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
3.
King Kong
2005 NZ/US - dir. Peter Jackson [Cast: Jack Black, Naomi Watts]
Distributed By UIP - 15.0% Share - 1,942 Per Screen Avg. - 270 Screens (-105)
3,090,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
4.
작업의 정석 (The Art of Seduction)
2005 KOREA - dir. Oh Gi-Hwan [Cast: Son Ye-Jin, Song Il-Guk]
Distributed By Showbox - 13.4% Share - 1,991 Per Screen Avg. - 309 Screens (-41)
1,800,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
5.
태풍 (Typhoon)
2005 KOREA - dir. Kwak Kyung-Taek [Cast: Jang Dong-Gun, Lee Jung-Jae]
Distributed By CJ Entertainment - 11.0% Share - 1,666 Per Screen Avg. - 310 Screens (-190)
3,850,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
6.
청연 (Blue Swallow)
2005 KOREA - dir. Yoon Jong-Chan [Cast: Jang Jin-Young, Kim Ju-Hyeok]
Distributed By: Corea Pictures - 8.4% Share - 1,553 Per Screen Avg. - 307 Screens (New)
341,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
7.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2005 UK/USA - dir. Mike Newell [Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Eric Sykes]
Distributed By Warner Brothers Korea - 4.4% Share - 1,094 Per Screen Avg. - 240 Screens (-124)
3,700,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
8.
파랑주의보 (My Girl & I)
2005 KOREA - dir. Jeon Yoon-Soo [Cast: Cha Tae-Hyun, Song Hye-Gyo]
Distributed By: I Love Cinema - 0.08% Share - 251 Per Screen Avg. - 181 Screens (-112)
265,000 Tickets Sold Nationwide
2005 Box Office Top 10 (Korean Films)
01. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 8,002,594
02. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,663,000
03. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154
04. 공공의 적 2 (Another Public Enemy) - 3,910,000
05. 태풍 (Typhoon) - 3,850,000
06. 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) - 3,560,000
07. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 3,070,000
08. 마파도 (Mapado) - 3,020,000
09. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - 2,545,000
10. 박수칠 때 떠나라 (Murder, Take One) - 2,480,000
All Time Box Office Top 10 (Korean Films)
01. 태극기 휘날리며 (Taegukgi) - 11,746,135 [2004]
02. 실미도 (Silmido) - 11,074,000 [2003]
03. 친구 (Friend) - 8,180,000 [2001]
04. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 8,002,594 [2005]
05. 쉬리 (Shiri) - 6,210,000 [1999]
06. 공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area) - 5,830,000 [2000]
07. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,663,000 [2005]
08. 조폭 마누라 (My Wife is a Gangster) - 5,250,000 [2001]
09. 가문의 영광 (Marrying the Mafia) - 5,200,001 [2002]
10. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154 [2005]
