“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” Marvel’s first movie with an Asian superhero, topped the South Korean box office over its first weekend. But it failed to lift Korean cinema-going to new heights.
The film grossed $4.75 million over the opening weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service provided by the Korean Film Council. Released on Wednesday, it has a five-day cumulative of $6.61 million.
Its Friday to Sunday haul was achieved on 1,783 screens and represented 59% of the national box office haul. The overall weekend total was $8.05 million, a decent bounce from the previous weekend, but also short of the best weekend of the year.
Korean film “Sinkhole” has the biggest opening weekend of the year by a local film with $5.63 million. “Black Widow” earned $8.72 million over its opening weekend in July and $12.1 million in its first five days.
“Hostage: Missing Celebrity” slipped from first place to second. It earned $1.12 million over the weekend, for a cumulative total of $11.2 million since its debut on Aug. 18.
“Escape From Mogadishu” added another $886,000 over the weekend, in third place. That cemented its position as the top grossing film of the year to date in Korea, with a $26.8 million running total.
“Sinkhole,” in fourth place over the weekend with $563,000, is now on a cumulative of $17.8 million.
“Don’t Breathe 2” earned just $266,000 on its opening weekend, in fifth place. Its five-day total is $401,000. “Coda,” which was given a Tuesday release, earned 139,000 over the weekend and $264,000 over its opening six days. No other film managed more than a 1% share of the national total.