The end-of-year season continued to draw healthy crowds with 2.87 million spectators snatching up tickets over the final weekend of the year. Korean films have been particularly strong during the period, counting an 81% share of the market.
The Korean disaster action blockbuster ASHFALL continues to draw in massive crowds after a healthy 40% decline with another 1.2 million viewers (USD 9.11 million) counted over the weekend, with a hefty 5.74 million admissions (USD 41.89 million) tallied to date. The joint CJ Entertainment and Dexter Studios-distributed smash hit is still handily topping the reservations chart with New Year’s Day still to come as it looks likely to reach more box office milestones.
Opening in second place was HUR Jin-ho’s period drama Forbidden Dream with HAN Suk-kyu and CHOI Min-shik. The Lotte Cultureworks picture has garnered strong reviews and audience scores and kicked off its run with 541,000 entries (USD 4.11 million) over the weekend and 702,000 sales (USD 4.94 million) over four days. All signs point to a steady run for the prestige pic over the coming weeks.
Also faring well in third place was the local comedy-drama START-UP, which slowed just 36% in its second weekend as it gathered 462,000 spectators (USD 3.55 million), raising its total to a solid 2.29 million admissions (USD 16.69 million) in 12 days.
Still a force on the charts was Disney’s Frozen 2, which receded 45% with another 191,000 tickets (USD 1.44 million) sold. This pushed its total to 13.27 million entries (USD 95.57 million), making it the third best-selling foreign film of all time and the eighth best seller overall.
The local animation The Haunted House: The Sky Ghost VS Jormungand was down 59% in its second weekend, as it filled 119,000 seats (USD 820,000), bringing its total to 621,000 admissions (USD 4.25 million).
Hollywood Word War II film Midway will debut on Tuesday, but beyond that, local hits should continue to drum up strong sales as we enter the New Year.