South Korea Box Office

[Rsyu]

Holiday?

 

Yes. Yesterday was the last day of chuseok holidays. 

Edited November 1, 2014 by Rsyu

[chasmmi]

Yes. Yesterday was the last day of chuseok holidays.

Only if you work in public sector

[Rsyu]

Only if you work in public sector

 

I'm guessing you didn't get the day off yesterday what do you do?

[chasmmi]

I'm guessing you didn't get the day off yesterday what do you do?

 

I teach English, but its a private school so the choice of red day or not is business's discretion and they of course wants the moneys

[chimpo]

Looking at those numbers you might get higher budgets for your local blockbusters

 

Roaring Currents numbers are just insane.

[Rsyu]

South Korea Daily Box Office (September 12)

-Admissions (total) gross (Drops from LW) [screens] <Title>

01. 127,540    (2,694,428)  $0.991M  (-31.5%)  [739] <Tazza 2>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02. 74,136    (1,585,133)      $579K (+34.8%)  [358] <Begin Again> 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03.   58,109    (1,628,572)      $468K  (-64.9%) [475] <Lucy> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04.   41,486  (1,703,882)      $312K  (-26.0%) [371] <Into the storm>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05.   41,109    (1,327,977)      $301K (-59.3%) [422] <My brilliant life> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06. 33,833    (8,190,616)      $259K (-25.8%)  [407] <The Pirates> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07. 23,077       (418,853)      $172K   (-39.8%)  [288] <Step up: all in> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
08. 14,245         (29,395)      $111K       (--)       [345] <Sin city 2: A dame to kill for>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09.   13,244  (17,459,647)       $98K    (-24.9%)  [239] <Roaring Currents> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.   1,712        (163,471)     $12K       (-0.1%)  [123] <Maya the bee movie>

Total admissions: 441,110
Total Gross: $3.375 million

Roaring Currents Cume: $130.072 million
The Pirates Cume: $60.288 million

Tazza 2 cume: $18.748 million 

[TServo2049]

What the heck happened with Begin Again?

[Rsyu]

What the heck happened with Begin Again?

 

Films with a strong musical theme are usually very popular here (see august rush, frozen etc) but yeah Begin again is on a pretty good run. Interestingly enough Hollywood comedy films usually do crap here (different humour code I guess) but cute romance films with good music OST doing great numbers isn't all that uncommon. About time is a recent example. 

 

Begin again's gross is at $12.344 million as of yesterday, around $3.5 million short of the domestic gross. It has been aided by phenomenal word of mouth too with 9.21/10.0 rating on naver.  

Edited September 13, 2014 by Rsyu

[Rsyu]

South Korea weekend Box Office (09/12~09/14)

-Admissions (total) gross (Drops from LW) [screens] <Title>

01. 540,525    (3,107,393)  $4.320M  (-35.5%)  [759] <Tazza 2>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02. 351,519    (1,862,512)  $2.764M (+78.8%)  [486] <Begin Again> 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03. 225,121    (1,887,515)  $1.713M  (-11.3%) [428] <Into the storm> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04. 225,053  (1,795,511)  $1.838M  (-63.9%) [475] <Lucy>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05. 205,435    (8,362,209)   $1.559M  (-25.6%)  [464] <The Pirates> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06. 194,267    (1,481,124)   $1.426M  (-56.7%)  [422] <My brilliant life> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07. 95,684       (491,458)       $723K  (-34.6%)  [293] <Step up: all in> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
08. 71,113  (17,517,505)       $540K  (-38.7%)  [279] <Roaring Currents>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09.   50,552        (212,311)       $359K   (+7.9%) [278] <Maya the bee movie> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.   45,246          (60,396)       $361K       (--)      [345] <Sin city 2: A Dame to kill for>

Total admissions: 2,085,079
Total Gross: $16.154 million

Roaring Currents Cume: $130.514 million
The Pirates Cume: $61.588 million

Tazza 2 cume: $22.077 million 

Begin again cume: $14.529 million

[Rsyu]

Stunned at how well begin again is doing. 2 million admissions should happen..

[bartonfink]

Korean audiences really like movies that add good musics.

[chasmmi]

I'm also surprised Turtles just died.Most of my students seemed vaguely interested in it, I'd have thought it would have got more viewers 

[LexJoker]

Do people in SK care about the Asian Game? I am reading some reports saying the interest, bare some high profile sports, is poor.

[senmitsuji]

Stunned at how well begin again is doing. 2 million admissions should happen..

the soundtrack is doing really well there. it's currently topping all their music charts.

[Rsyu]

the soundtrack is doing really well there. it's currently topping all their music charts.

 

Yeah begin again-lost stars is acting like Frozen-let it go on a smaller scale in that sense. Lost stars is a really good song!

[Rsyu]

Do people in SK care about the Asian Game? I am reading some reports saying the interest, bare some high profile sports, is poor.

 

Not really, that report is pretty spot on. Football is pretty popular but the other sports don't really receive much interest.

[Rsyu]

South Korea Daily Box Office (September 18)

-Admissions (total) gross (Drops from LW) [screens] <Title>

01.   83,359          (88,575)      $590K      (--)         [472] <The Maze runner> NEW  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02. 56,484    (2,076,779)      $405K  (+14.2%)  [425] <Begin Again> 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03. 48,351    (3,354,961)      $345K (-46.0%)  [626] <Tazza 2> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04. 25,970         (26,759)      $183K     (--)        [367] <Tombstone> NEW
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05.   11,752    (8,423,392)        $80K (-64.6%)  [317] <The Pirates> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06. 10,838    (1,882,282)        $77K (-80.6%)  [292] <Lucy> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07.   9,554     (1,956,463)       $66K   (-68.9%)  [258] <Into the storm> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
08.   8,223     (1,536,203)       $55K   (-74.3%)  [268] <My brilliant life>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09.      8,031            (9,666)       $69K         (--)      [252] <The plant> NEW 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.   4,552   (17,548,609)       $32K   (-70.7%)  [170] <Roaring Currents>

Total admissions: 296,807
Total Gross: $2.02 million

Roaring Currents Cume: $130.73 million

The Pirates Cume: $62.016 million

Tazza 2 cume: $23.853 million 

Begin again cume: $16.059 million

Edited September 19, 2014 by Rsyu

[Rsyu]

Begin again is being categorized as an art-house film by Kofic and I'm not sure whether other countries have something similar so I think it's beneficial to go over exactly what defines an art-house film. Basically an arthouse film is the opposite of commercial films and require independent and/or low capital funding in it's production and generally portrays "art films". Also, it's opening day screens and showtimes must not exceed 200 and 840 respectively. 

 

The benefit of being defined as an art film is that they can acquire the right to be shown in exclusive art-film theatres and avoid losing out by competing with mainstream commercial films. 

 

There has been some controversy over categorizing begin again as an arthouse film, mainly due to it's well known cast (Keira Knightly, Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine) and production budget which happens to be higher than roaring currents' production budget.  

 

So the definition of an arthouse film is still pretty fluid. And while Begin again enjoys a competitive edge over other arthouse films in terms of the cast's star power and relatively high production costs, it still met the screen and showtime requirements necessary to be classed as such. Moreover the film itself represents "art" (in this case music) which helped solidify it's status as an arthouse film. 

 

Currently Begin again is the 3rd most attended arthouse film of all time behind 2009 documentary film old partner (2,934,409 admissions) and Howl's moving castle (2,433,298 admissions) respectively

Edited September 19, 2014 by Rsyu

[bartonfink]

I think Kofic's standard about art-house films is such a nonsense. How can Begin Again be art-house film? Conventional narrative, familiar stars, catchy music numbers etc...it's just another commercial film. Do they think only huge blockbusters are commercial? Kofic should tighten their standard and make more appropriate category. And they should generously support more indie films and the small works of great artists like Hong Sang-soo & Kim Ki-duk.

Edited September 19, 2014 by bartonfink

[Rsyu]

I think Kofic's standard about art-house films is such a nonsense. How can Begin Again be art-house film? Conventional narrative, familiar stars, catch music numbers etc...it's just another commercial film. Do they think only huge blockbusters are commercial? Kofic should tighten their standard and make more appropriate category. And they should generously support more indie films and the small works of great artists like Hong Sang-soo & Kim Ki-duk.

 

Here is the definition of Arthouse-films that I found on wiki:

 

 An art film (also known as art movie, specialty film, art house film, or in the collective sense as art cinema) is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. An art film is "intended to be a serious artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal" they are "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit", and they contain "unconventional or highly symbolic content"

 

Ok so having said that, so lets go over the points you mentioned,

 

Just looking at South Korea you may have a point about it being a commercial film, since it has been embraced widely by a diverse audience. However on a global scale, it's pretty much failed everywhere else. You can say maybe the pre-release promotion and marketing wasn't all that great or the film itself sucked too much but if it was designed to appeal to the mass audience then it would have done much better than it did. I agree some of the narrative is pretty conventional Hollywood stuff but there were many refreshing elements to it as well, mostly about how to interpret music in a different light. 

 

About familiar actors, I don't think it's a valid point as there's no reason that they can't act in art-films. I remember Her and Grand budapest hotel had some widely recognized cast members too and still both were generally identified as art-house films. 

 

Catchy music numbers, I guess it depends on how you look at it. If the music is a cheap carbon copy of mainstream music designed to draw in impressionable audiences then yeah it's probably a problem. On the other hand the music can be genuinely good and catchy and add, rather than subtract, to the artistic nature of the film. Inside Llewyn Davis, once and august rush had some great music too. This one is open to interpretation I think. 

 

So while begin again may be more conventional and mainstream than the average art-house film I don't see that big a problem with categorizing it as one either. 

Edited September 19, 2014 by Rsyu