2015.05.01 ~ 2015.05.03

Marvel's might continues while newcomers stake their claim…

There was some serious jostling for position going on at the box office this past weekend. Last weekend Marvel's latest "Avengers" film entered the fray and (righteously) dominated proceedings by capturing a mammoth 90% of the box office pie. And while this left little else for the rest of the pack to pounce on, a week later we find a string of new entries trying to make a move on Marvel's monster.

"The Avengers: Age of Ultron" has been attacking records vigorously worldwide since its release late last month, and it's arrival in Korea was no less spectacular. Week two for the foreign favourite was equally profitable. The film claimed an additional 2.3M admissions (73%) across 1,634 screens to continue its reign as the country's favourite flick. With that haul "The Avengers" now moves onto 7 million admissions, or $55.5M.

Second place to sixth were all claimed by newcomers.Han Jun-hee's drama "Coin Locker girls" (which was screen as part of Cannes 2015 Critics' Week) starringKim Hye-soo,Kim Go-eun-IandEom Tae-goo, managed 438K (14%) to sit in second place, whileKim Jin-yeong's comedy"Enemies In-Law"(withJin Se-yeon,Hong Jong-hyeon, Sin Jeong-heun andJeon Soo-kyeong) took third place with 160K (5%).

With all the age-restricted blockbusters breaking through it was nice to see a number of films targeting the younger crowds feature. The first of which was the animated adventure film "Dino Time" by Korean directorsChoi Yoon-seok-IandJohn Kafka. The film is a collaborative effort between American studios and the South Korea, and during its first weekend out managed it to claim 2% of the box office pie (74K). Close behind fell another international effort, this time from Germany, Belgium and Ireland. "Ooops! Noah is Gone" (aka "Two by Two") and tells the tale of Dave, a "Nestrian" that, along with his sone Finny, missed their ticket on the ark. "Ooops! Noah is Gone" scored 67K admissions over 354 screens for fifth.

The American animation "Ribbit" (with voices by Sean Aston, Tim Curry and Russell Peters) came out in the States last June, but has finally arrived on Korean soil to the delight of nearly 33K filmgoers (0.8%), and was tailed byKang Je-gyu's family drama"Salut D'Amour"starringPark Geun-hyeong,Yoon Yeo-jeong,Jo Jin-woong, and Han Ji-man")."Salut D'Amour"has been in charts since early April, but with the recent rush of new and popular releases this local delight has drifted towards the wrong end of the scale."Salut D'Amour"added 30K (0.8%) to advance its total tally now to just over a million ($7.5M).

Rounding out the first week of May now and in eighth place fell yet another animations, this time from Japan in the form of the popular "Crayon Shin-chan" (subtitled: "Serious Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back") (30K admissions). "Furious 7" was flying high in Korea just last week, but after a few weeks of uncontested glory, this high-octane rush plummeted to ninth in no time at all in the wake of the "Avengers" and new hopefuls. "Furious 7" occupied second last week, but the 26K it claim here was no where near competitively enough to stay in the upper echelons of the chart. Lastly, Richard Glastzer's adaptation of Lisa Genova's 2007 novel, "Still Alice" starring Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin, closed this weekend's list of top performers with 24K admissions.

Last weekend's report:[HanCinema's Box Office Review] 2015.04.24 ~ 2015.04.26

Korean Box Office - Admissions for the Weekend 2015.05.01 - 2015.05.03 (www.kobis.or.kr)

- C.J. Wheeler (@Woolgatherist; KoreaOnTheCouch)