Crime action film ‘I The Executioner” topped the South Korea cinema box office weekend with an utterly dominant $15 million haul. The session represented the first half of a long holiday in Korea.
Data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic) showed that the film enjoyed a market share of 86% between Friday and Sunday. It was watched by 2.09 million spectators.
That represented the second biggest opening weekend score by any film this year in Korea, behind the $20.8 million attained by “The Roundup: Punishment” in late April. Nationwide, the latest weekend was the third-highest Friday-Sunday session of 2024, at $17.5 million, behind the first two weekends of release of “Punishment.”
The film known locally as “Veteran 2,” is a sequel to “Veteran,” which released in August 2015 and shares the same writer-director Ryoo Seung-wan and lead actor Hwang Jung-min as the new picture. “Veteran” earned $78.4 million from 13.4 million spectators, making it the fifth highest grossing Korean film of all time in its home market and the seventh highest scoring film of any nationality in the country.
At first glance, the opening of “I, The Executioner” beats that of “Veteran,” which clocked up 1.32 million admissions in its first three days. But comparisons are complicated by the unusual Friday release of “I, The Executioner” and the impact of the Chuseok (or Korean Thanksgiving) holiday, which for many companies and their staff this year is a five-day holiday running from Saturday through Wednesday.
“Veteran” opened on a conventional Wednesday ahead of a non-holiday weekend in August 2015. At the end of its first Sunday, “Veteran” had clocked up more than 2.7 million admissions.
In many previous years, Chuseok has been the moment for multiple high-profile, mass market films to release and compete for family audiences. This year. “I, The Executioner” was the sole tentpole to stake out the season, and Korean commentators have speculated that Chuseok is losing its importance for the movie industry. Distributors’ hesitation may also reflect the flop at this time last year of titles including “Road to Boston,” a generally sluggish theatrical market in 2024 and a dearth of Korean tentpole movies following a COVID-era that has badly strained Korean film producers.
The weekend saw a smattering of other new release titles. But the best of them, “Bread Barbershop: The Birth of the Bread Star” managed a market share that was below 2%. The Korean-made animation released on Saturday and earned $336,000 in two days. Including previews, it finished Sunday with $458,000.
Another Korean animation “Heartsping: Teenieping of Love” took third place with $252,000 between Friday and Sunday. Since releasing in the first week of August, it has now collected $6.71 million.
“Alien: Romulus,” winner of three of the past four weekends, slipped to fourth position. It earned $251,000 for a cumulative of $14.7 million. (Local charts which rank titles according to ticket sales, not revenue, showed it in fifth place.)
Japanese animation film “Look Back” took fifth place with $245,000. Its cumulative total after 12 days on release in $969,000.
Concert film “Lim Young Woong IM HERO The Stadium” ranked sixth in revenue terms, taking $232,000 for a cumulative of $5.65 million since releasing on Aug 28. (Local charts which, which do not take account of premium ticket pricing, showed it in ninth place.)
Korean-made panda documentary “My Dearest Fu Bao” slipped to seventh place, with $143,000 over the weekend. It now has a cumulative total of $1.41 million.
U.S. horror thriller “Speak No Evil” released conventionally on Wednesday. It earned $105,000 over the weekend and $198,000 over its opening five days.
U.S. animation film “Ozi: Voice of the Forest” opened on Friday and earned $95,000, enough for ninth place. The re-released Chines youth drama “Better Days” earned $81,000.
