After a flurry that lasted only for the duration of the recent Lunar New Year holidays, theatrical box office in South Korea slumped again over the latest weekend.
Nationwide, Korean cinemas earned just $3.22 million between Friday and Sunday. That was the lowest scoring weekend so far in 2022 and followed a disappointing holiday period.
The Lunar New Year holidays – if measured from the previous Saturday until Wednesday (Jan 29- Feb. 2, 2022) – attracted 1.36 million spectators into Korean theaters. In 2020, on the eve of the pandemic, the equivalent figure was ticket sales of 4.9 million.
Over the latest weekend, the top spot was retained by “The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure” with a $1.35 million weekend score, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After twelve days at the top of the rankings, “The Last Royal Treasure” has accumulated $8.80 million.
That figure is a long way short of the film’s hit forerunner “The Pirates,” which grossed $64 million in 2014, and looks weak in comparison with its reported $20 million production budget.
For the second weekend, political drama “Kingmaker” took the number two spot. It earned $894,000 for a twelve-day total of $4.99 million.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which was by far the top-scoring film of 2021, continued to add usefully to its cumulative total. In third place, it earned $324,000 over the latest weekend. Released in mid-December, it has now grossed $62.0 million.
Korea’s continuing COVID-19 worries and the post-holiday lull meant an almost total lack of new releases. None made any impact on the top ten chart places.