South Korea Box Office: ‘Ant-Man’ Makes Big Entrance, Knocks Out ‘Veteran’

Ant-Man made a big splash at the South Korean box office, earning a cume of $9.2 million during its first weekend in theaters from Sept. 4 to 6, according the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS database on Monday.

The film handled by Walt Disney Company Korea accounted for 45.7 percent of the market share during this time frame. In terms of admissions, by which local industry observers rank films, Ant-Man crossed the 1-million mark in just four days on Sept. 4 —which is a day faster than some of the highest-grossing Marvel superhero films of all time in this country, including Iron Man and Thor: Dark World, which both took five days.

“Featuring both humorous details and large-scale spectacles, the film succeeds in hitting two birds with one stone,” said film critic Kim Soo-jung.

The successful debut of the comic franchise has ended the long reign of local action film Veteran. The CJ Entertainment title took 23 percent of the weekend revenue for a gross total of $77.4 million. With 11.87 million admissions, the film has surpassed the admissions record of Haeundae (11.45 million) and TaeGukGi: Brotherhood of War (11.74 million) to become the 9th best Korean film of all time.

Other homegrown films continued to dominate the rest of the ranks.

Office, the Little Big Pictures film that debuted at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, debuted at No. 3. The thriller about a regular white-collar worker turning into a serial killer overnight garnered 7.9 percent of the revenue. It has so far earned $1.8 million.

The Beauty Inside, distributed by Next Entertainment World (NEW), stepped down two spots to fourth place. The rom-com trailed close behind Office and took 7.8 percent of the share for total earnings of about $12 million during its third weekend in theaters.

Assassination, another one of the top films of the year and in local box-office history, also descended down to No. 5. The period actioner about Korean independence fighters during the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945) accounted for 5.7 percent of the weekend revenue. The Showbox/Mediaplex title’s gross total comes down to $80.5 million since opening in theaters on July 22. It now ranks as the sixth most-watched Korean film of all time with 12.49 million admissions.

South Korea Box Office: ‘Ant-Man’ Makes Big Entrance, Knocks Out ‘Veteran’

Lee Hyo-won

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