Korean Box Office: SECRETLY GREATLY Not-so-Secret in Great Debut
Title | Release Date | Market Share | Weekend | Total | Screens | |
1 | Secretly Greatly | 13/06/05 | 68.90% | 2,064,586 | 3,491,507 | 1341 |
2 | Star Trek: Into Darkness (us) | 13/05/30 | 11.30% | 284,135 | 1,261,090 | 412 |
3 | Horror Stories 2 | 13/06/05 | 5.60% | 172,776 | 347,311 | 337 |
4 | Furious 6 (us) | 13/05/22 | 3.40% | 97,707 | 1,708,497 | 291 |
5 | The Croods (us) | 13/05/16 | 2.60% | 82,563 | 819,621 | 272 |
6 | Olympus Has Fallen (us) | 13/06/05 | 2.10% | 60,573 | 113,476 | 283 |
7 | Montage | 13/05/16 | 1.70% | 50,518 | 2,060,999 | 297 |
8 | After Earth (us) | 13/05/30 | 1.20% | 37,122 | 524,612 | 270 |
9 | The Great Gatsby (us) | 13/05/16 | 1.00% | 28,758 | 1,391,906 | 132 |
10 | Nazuma Eleven GO (jp) | 13/06/05 | 0.50% | 16,267 | 30,210 | 99 |
Commanding almost 70% of the weekend's business was Secretly Greatly, which has been smashing records since its debut on Wednesday. It has now set new benchmarks for Opening Day, Single Day and Opening Weekend for Korean films, as well as fastest to 1 million overall. For the fastest to 2 and 3 million records, it has tied with Transformers 3, though one could argue that it reached those milestones in fewer hours. For more details on the records it broke last week, take a look at this previous analysis.
With approximately 3.5 million admissions in five days, the question now becomes: how far can Secretly Greatly go? Though burdened with a negative critical reaction, I don't think the film's core young female audience will be dissuaded from seeing the tantalizing grouping of three of their favorite idols (Kim Soo-yun, Park Ki-woong and Lee Hyun-woo) on screen. That said, with school wrapping up, the event status afforded by its stars, and the quick consumption speed of its youth audience as they move from one thing to the next, I can't imagine this film will have great legs. It's not a four-quadrant film like The Thieves or Miracle in Cell No. 7. I think it will finish over A Werewolf Boy's 7 million total (a film with a similar demographic) but fall short of 10 million. Of course, if this inspires heavy repeat viewings, I could easily be proven wrong.
Also opening this weekend was the omnibus Horror Stories 2, following the original's bow last July. Debuting at number three with 172,776, it fared much better than its predecessor's 92k. With almost 350,000 admissions already banked, it's performing well for an omnibus but still below standard K-horror features such as last year's Don't Click (295k) and Two Moons (205k), though not by much.
Quickly running through the rest of the field, at number two, Star Trek: Into Darkness dropped 43% for 284,135 after a so-so opening, demonstrating the brand's weak status in Korea, despite strong reviews. Furious 6 suffered a 70% dive for 97,707 and number four on the chart, beating previous installments, though barely. Rounding out the top five was US animation The Croods which rose one spot after faling only 16% for 82,563. It will almost certainly cross 1 million now.
The only major release this week will be the superman reboot, Man of Steel. The previous attempt at jump-starting the franchise, Superman Returns, clinched 600k in its debut and finished under 2 million. I think this will do better but it is still unlikely to steal Secretly Greatly's assured second top spot finish.
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