Japanese animation film “The First Slam Dunk” was the undisputed champion at the South Korean box office over the weekend. Not only did depose “Abatar: The Way of Water” from first place it also grew its week-on-week performance by 10% – in its fifth weekend on release.
A week earlier the two top titles were much closer. Korean box office charts which rank performance by the number of tickets sold placed “The First Slam Dunk” on top. But in terms of gross receipts, “Avatar 2” had been the top seller.
Over the latest weekend “The First Slam Dunk” earned $2.89 million from 276,000 tickets sold., making it a clear winner over “Avatar 2” which pulled in $1.35 million from 114,000 tickets.
“The First Slam Dunk” has been a leggy hit performer in its native Japan and in other Asian markets. In Korea, it has performed unusually steadily, earning between $2 million and $3 million for five consecutive weekends. It now has a cumulative total of $19.4 million since releasing in Korea on Jan. 4.
In third place, “The Point Men” which briefly overtook “Avatar 2” in mid-January, earned $745,000 over the weekend. That gave it a cumulative score of $13.1 million after three weekends on release.
The highest opener of the weekend was concert movie “BTS: Yet to Come in Cinemas” which earned $576,000 and $1.06 million over its opening five days.
“Babylon” (shown as occupying fourth place in the local chart, by virtue of more tickets sold) followed with $540,000 over the weekend and $782,000 over its opening five days.
Korean-made “Hero,” earned $378,000 over the latest weekend for a cumulative of $24.8 million earned since Dec. 21.
Taiwan’s “Someday or One Day” earned $369,000 for a total of $1.89 million after two weekends.
Korean “Phantom” earned $334,000 for a $4.99 million cumulative, assembled over three weekends.
The two remaining U.S. titles, “M3GAN” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” ranked ninth and tenth, respectively. The former earned $316,000 for a cumulative of $1.60 million after two weekends, the latter earned $206,000 for a total of $6.01 million since its debut on Jan. 4.
The nationwide aggregate was just $7.70 million, the lowest weekend score in nine weeks. Weekend performances are notably higher than in the first six weeks of 2022.