Since the outbreak in Seoul earlier this month, South Korea has confirmed more than 20 new cases in several consecutive days, which has also led to a slower recovery of the Korean film industry than expected. Only 598 screens were still in operation in South Korea last week, up 13 percent month-on-month, but still not a quarter of the national total. Due to the lack of powerful new films to enter the market, the weekend market (number of people) only rose slightly by 6.6% month-on-month. In terms of specific rankings, the re-screening of the song and dance film "The King of the Circus" won the weekend box office title in a low profile; the British film "Escape from Pretoria" fell slightly, but failed to hold the weekend number of people; the French film "Belle Époque" opened in third place, and the Spanish film "Hunger Station" was squeezed out to fourth in the weekend list. The same re-screening of "Ace Bodyguard" also squeezed into the top five of the weekend, and the Japanese animation "Weather Child" ranked sixth.
The song and dance biopic "The King of the Circus", starring Hugh Jackman and Zach Efron, began re-screening last week and was screened on 598 screens over the weekend, averaging more than 1,100 shows per day and more than 12 people per game, making it the best in the top ten. The debut film, directed by Michael Grach, attracted more than 40,000 spectators over three days over the weekend, becoming the highest-attendance weekend champion in more than two months; however, due to the low ticket price of the re-screening, its weekend box office was still 23% lower than that of the defending champion "Escape from Pretoria", and like the re-release of "Philharmonic City" a month ago, it failed to win both box office and attendance.
The story of "King of the Circus" is based on the real story of P.T. Barnum, the founder of the American Circus, and his Lingling Circus, the film was nominated for best musical (comedy) film at the 75th Golden Globe Awards, and the song "This Is Me" won the best original song of the year. With the blessing of high-quality soundtracks, "King of the Circus" returned to the $434 million box office worldwide at a cost of $84 million, which is extremely eye-catching for biopics. However, the film's first performance in South Korea was relatively mediocre, with a cumulative number of only about 1.4 million people, less than half of "Philharmonic City". Although the results of the re-screening are acceptable, they should not be enough to boost its total number of people to hit the 2 million mark.
The British crime drama "Escape from Pretoria" was expanded to 547 screens over the weekend, with a total of more than 3500 screenings in three days, the most screened films in the whole weekend, and its average attendance remained more than 10 people for the third consecutive week. The film, starring "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe, mobilized 36,800 more people over the weekend, down 12% from the previous weekend, and although it topped the weekend box office charts, it was slightly less popular than "The King of the Circus", which began to be re-screened. Three weeks after its release, the film's cumulative number of visitors in South Korea has risen to 127,000, and the cumulative box office has reached $892,000, and will exceed the $1 million mark this week. Because of the epidemic, the film was previously only released in its hometown in the United Kingdom, and in the case of only a few days of small-scale release, it finally only received more than $10,000. The film has already landed on digital platforms and disc markets on April 20, but after the epidemic is under control, it should be possible to land in a few other markets.
The French romantic comedy "Belle Époque" opened in the South Korean market last Wednesday and started on 463 screens in its first weekend, screening an average of more than 700 times a day, with an average of nearly 8 people recording the average performance. Starring Daniel Otei and Gyolm Cane, the film only mobilized 21,800 viewers in its first five days and grossed $154,000 at the box office. The story of the film tells that Victor, who has lost his enthusiasm for life, with the help of his son and friends, decides to accept the mysterious experience provided by the "Memory Of The Company", so that the realistic scenes built by the film props and the acting skills of professional actors can help him return to the day when he met his beloved in the bar. Belle Epoque won three awards at the 45th César Awards and grossed $13.2 million in Europe (including $9.46 million in france). If the film's Korean box office can exceed $500,000, it will become the fourth largest box office after France, Italy and Germany.
The Spanish science fiction thriller "Hunger Station" was reduced to 205 screen screenings the following weekend, with more than 1,600 screenings in three days over the weekend, and the average number of people per game also plummeted to about 7 people. The film, which was designated as "forbidden for teenagers", attracted another 11,600 spectators over the weekend, down nearly 50% from the opening weekend, and the trend was more mediocre. As of Sunday, the cumulative number of viewers of the film has exceeded 50,000, and the cumulative box office has risen to $380,000. The story setting of "Hunger Station" is relatively heavy on taste, and the reputation outside the core movie-watching group is not prominent, so the trend is relatively mediocre. The film has previously been released in Hong Kong, China, and the final box office is close to $400,000, and south Korea's final box office should easily surpass Hong Kong. In other large markets, the film has already landed on the Netflix streaming platform on March 20.
The action film "Ace Bodyguard" starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel Jackson was not released on a large scale that year, and more than 1,200 screenings landed on 318 screens in the first week of the re-screening, with an average of less than 6 people, and the number of moviegoers barely exceeded 10,000 in the five days of release. Makoto Shinkai's animated film "Weather Child" also landed on 190 screens for re-screening, with more than 5,000 weekend viewers, and the cumulative number of visitors in South Korea has approached the 700,000 mark.
Chen Kaige's domestic classic "Farewell to the King" continues to be re-screened in South Korea, with a cumulative number of visitors approaching 85,000 and a cumulative box office of more than $600,000.
The war film "The Last Fight", co-starring "Director" Samuel Jackson and "Winter Soldier" Sebastian Stein, opened in South Korea last Wednesday and averaged at the bottom of the top ten, mobilizing only more than 5,000 spectators in the first weekend, ranking eighth in the weekend list. The film was released in North America at the beginning of the year, but it grossed less than $3 million and could end up with nothing.