[KOREA Box Office] ‘The Invisible Man’ Debuts as No. 1 in the Rusty Box Office This Weekend

Edited by Yang Young Jun
Translated by Jeon Gyeong Ju

The Korean box office has fallen into a serious slump where the rankings are virtually meaningless. The unstoppable spread of COVID-19 (the new Coronavirus) has made many moviegoers stay away from the cinemas, and then the total number of attendances in February remained at one-third of those last year. Amid this depressed atmosphere, The Invisible Man successfully topped the box office on its opening weekend. It’s not a pleasant situation at all, however, as The Invisible Man‘s number of attendances is less than half of that of Beasts Clawing at Straws, which had topped the box office on the previous week. The Invisible Man is expected to retain its crown even if Brahms: The Boy Ⅱ is released on March 4, but its number of attendances doesn’t seem to increase a lot versus this weekend. I sincerely hope the COVID-19 disaster will calm down as soon as possible.

 

1. The Invisible Man (Released on Feb. 26, 2020) ( NEW )

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Credit: UPI (Universal Pictures International) Korea

Weekend Attendances/Sales: 107,230 Viewers / KRW 0.984 Billion

Cumulative Attendances/Sales: 153,784 Viewers / KRW 1.322 Billion

Number of Screens: 742

Seating Rate / Market Share: 8.0% / 22.0%

Universal Pictures‘ new horror The Invisible Man ranked No. 1 in the Korean box office over the weekend. As a remake of the 1933 film The Invisible Man, which is based on the same-titled novel written by H. G. Wells, it depicts mysterious happenings that occurs to a woman who is threatened by an invisible being after the suicide of her sociopath lover. On the first day of its release, this movie made a good start by achieving the first No. 1 in the local box office as a foreign film in 43 days and keeping the crown through this weekend. This result is only based on its ranking, however, because the average number of viewers per day is 30,000 only. Most of the upcoming films, such as Parasite: Black and White, Time to Hunt and Disney/Pixar‘s Onward, has delayed their own releases, so it seems that The Invisible Man will be able to maintain its lead easily until next weekend. Nevertheless, considering its poor box office figures, the rise of The Invisible Man should be called a “wounded honor.”

 

2. 1917 (Released on Feb. 19, 2020) ( – )

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Credit: SmileENT Inc.

Weekend Attendances/Sales: 74,991 Viewers (-56.1%) / KRW 0.719 Billion

Cumulative Attendances/Sales: 431,542 Viewers / KRW 3.960 Billion

Number of Screens: 657 (-227)

Seating Rate / Market Share: 7.0% / 17.5%

With approximately 75,000 viewers over the weekend, 1917 finished second this weekend. Although its number of screens allocated for three days during the weekend fell behind that of Beasts Clawing at Straws (657 vs 679), the film maintained the same position by getting an upper hand of seating rates. As I mentioned earlier, however, the Korean cinemas have faced a huge crisis in the aftermath of COVID-19. With its accumulated number of viewers (about 431,000) currently, it seems difficult for 1917 to become a local box office hit.

 

3. Beasts Clawing at Straws (Released on Feb. 19, 2020) ▼ 2

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Credit: Megabox Plus M

Weekend Attendances/Sales: 58,560 Viewers (-74.1%) / KRW 0.529 Billion

Cumulative Attendances/Sales: 506,429 Viewers / KRW 4.385 Billion

Number of Screens: 679 (-312)

Seating Rate / Market Share: 5.0% / 19.0%

The third place in the box office was occupied by Beasts Clawing at Straws, which debuted as No. 1 last week. The number of viewers this weekend dropped to 58,500 approximately, down nearly 74 percent versus the previous weekend. Through the 11th day of its release, the total number of viewers stands at just around 506,000., It’s technically safe to say that it’s impossible for this movie to reach its break-even point (2.4 million viewers). The box office failure of Beasts Clawing at Straws is all the more pitiful since the film was highly expected before and after its release and the reviews of critics and audiences were so favorable.

 

4. Honest Candidate (Released on Feb. 12, 2020) ▼ 1

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 36,305 / 1,434,801

5. Little Women (Released on Feb. 12, 2020) ▼ 1

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 29,016 / 773,737

6. The Gentlemen (Released on Feb. 26, 2020) ( NEW )

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 23,377 / 49,395

7. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Re-released on Feb. 26, 2020) ( NEW )

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 15,639 / 1,805,682

8. Jojo Rabbit (Released on Feb. 5, 2020) ▲ 1

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 3,233 / 105,060

9. Parasite (Released on May 30, 2019) ▼ 3

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 2,803 / 10,284,833

10. The Closet (Released on Feb. 5, 2020) ▼ 5

Weekend/Cumulative Attendances – 2,623 / 1,262,781

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