A quiet, wimpy weekend at the box office as we have entered that lull between summer and Chuseok. With not many people going to the theater and nothing too popular, we have some strange things going on, such as the No. 10 movie appearing on more screens than the No. 1 movie.

At long last, neither D-WAR nor MAY 18 were the top movies. Instead, DISTURBIA led the box office. Zzzzzz.

D-WAR is really crashing hard and fast now. On Friday, barely 15,000 people went to see it. As of Sunday, though, D-WAR’s total admissions were now at 8.22 million, officially making it the fifth-biggest movie in Korean history. With zero chance of moving up the charts, thankfully.

MAY 18, on the other hand, still has some legs, chugging along in third. Unfortunately, I have not heard from CJ Entertainment what its “real” total is so far, so I only have the KOBIS estimate of 6.52 million admissions.
(UPDATE: Aha. Just got the CJ email. As of Monday evening, MAY 18 has just topped 7 million admissions. 7.003 million to be exact).

Nice to see STARDUST still holding up, despite being such a non-hit. All the films launched last week that made their debuts above STARDUST have quickly fallen below the quirky fantasy film.

After dipping to just 42 percent of the year’s box office at the end of July, Korean films have now recovered to a more presentable 48.5 percent. Quite a nice rebound in just one month.

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance Total Attendance
1. Disturbia 8.30 210 177,017 211,464
2. Nae Saengae Choeak-ui Namja (Korean) 8.30 306 164,436 199,030
3. May 18 (Hwaryeohan Hyuga – Korean) 7.26 282 159,460 6,528,717
4. No Reservations 8.30 168 104,544 138,023
5. D-War (Korean) 8.01 266 98,019 7,714,468
6. Stardust 8.15 143 73,945 756,776
7. Love Now (Jigeum Saranghaneun Sarang-gwa Salgo Issseumnikka? – Korean) 8.15 200 60,093 945,574
8. Underground Rendezvous (Mannam-ui Gwangjang Hanguk – Korean) 8.15 200 57,872 1,151,617
9. Flyboys 8.30 158 55,777 66,777
10. Swindler in My Mom’s House (Sarangbang Seonsu-wa Eomeoni – Korean) 8.22 231 53,176 458,374

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)