‘Hansan’ Holds Off ‘Emergency Declaration’ for Busy Korea Box Office Weekend

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo, and is projected to bring home $6.5 million this weekend, according to Forbes. Based on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” the Sony film has received lackluster reviews, but still holds the number one spot in this summer’s lowest-grossing weekend at the box office.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: The bowels of the summer box office have been reached with Sony’s new C CinemaScore horror movie The Invitation leading with $6M-$7M at 3,114 theaters. Like the late Andy Rooney, I get a lot of mail from sources, but in this instance it’s about why it’s important to be gentle when covering the box office. We’re still in the pandemic, we’re not back yet, it’s not good for our business to be nasty, blah blah blah. However, simply putting random movies in theaters without any great P&A spend doesn’t do the box office, or exhibitors any favors. This weekend will rank as the lowest grossing weekend to date of summer with an estimated $54M for all titles (some even have it lower). If it makes anyone feel better, it’s not the worst weekend of the year. That belongs to Jan. 28-30 when all titles made $34.9M per Box Office Mojo.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Jung-jae, the star of hit Netflix series “Squid Game,” is to reprise his role as a manic killer in “Ray,” a TV series spun off from 2020 Korean action-horror film “Deliver Us From Evil.” Korean media sources report that Lee will star in and co-produce the series through his own Artist Studio company and Hive Media, producer of “Deliver Us From Evil.” Variety has reached out for further details. In the original movie, Hwang Jung-min played In-Nam, a former black ops agent who travels to Thailand to investigate an abduction. There he is pursued by Lee’s character Ray, a Korean-Japanese ruffian whose brother had been killed by In-Nam. Both heavily tattooed and charming, Ray embarks on a bloody rampage of revenge.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean pop icons BTS confirmed that they will play a free concert in Busan in support of the city’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo. The ‘Yet To Come’ concert will be held at 6pm on Oct. 15, at the Busan Ilgwang special stage in Gijang-gun. The date is also one day after the end of the Busan International Film Festival. Organizer, Big Hit Music said the in-person concert is expected to be attended by 100,000 people. An in-person live broadcast LIVE PLAY will host approximately 10,000 people at Busan Port International Passenger Terminal Outdoor Parking Lot. The concert will also be livestreamed on Weverse, Zepeto, and Naver Now.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Train to Busan” director Yeon Sang-ho is to direct a Korean, live action series adaptation of hit Japanese manga “Parasyte: The Grey.” Netflix is the exclusive distributor worldwide. The story is about unidentified parasitic life-forms that live off human hosts and strive to grow their power. As they start to disrupt society, a group of humans wage war against the rising evil. Korean stars Jeon So-nee, Koo Kyo-hwan, Lee Jung-hyun have been confirmed to head the cast. The series is being produced on behalf of Netflix by Climax Studio and Wow Point. The series is adapted from a hit manga series created by Iwaaki Hitoshi about invasive life-forms that seize and control human bodies. Published by the Kodansha company in its Morning Open Zkan and its Monthly Afternoon magazine from 1988 to 1995, it sold over 25 million copies in over 20 territories and countries.

Broadway box office drooped in the final, sun-baked weeks before the Fall arrivals of new shows, with the roster of productions down to 20 last week and total box office slipping 19% from the previous week to $22,232,527.

Wise men say only fools predict that adult films don’t work at the pandemic box office, however, older moviegoers kept falling in love with Warner Bros.’ Elvis this summer to the point where it’s now director Baz Luhrmann’s highest grossing movie ever of his career in U.S./Canada with $144.851M, beating the original run of his 2013 title, The Great Gatsby, which made $144.84M.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Hunt,” the period political thriller directed by “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, held top spot at the South Korea box office for the second weekend. “Nope” was the highest opener, landing in third spot.“Hunt,” made $5.68 million over the weekend, down 35% compared with its opening score a week earlier.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Japanese animated adventure film is expected to take in $21 million during its first weekend in theaters, according to Variety.The Idris Elba-led “Beast,” roared into second place, earning close to $4.3 million in sales in its debut. A survival story of a family who gets stalked by a lion in South Africa, the movie “makes you miss ‘Anaconda,'” The Post quipped.“Bullet Train” slowed down to third place after spending two weeks in the No.

Two wide studio releases will hopefully prevent this summer from reaching another low at the box office after last weekend’s $67.3M. If there’s one movie that’s going to pull ahead, sources are betting on Crunchyroll’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. That distributor has proven in a short amount of time that they can draw a great deal of anime fans in a Friday through Sunday span. The Tetsuro Kodama directed animation movie is looking at anywhere from $12M-$15M, ahead of Universal’s genre lion-stalking film, Beast, starring Idris Elba; that pic hoping for at least double digits.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSpace comedy Moon Man held on to the top spot at the mainland China box office for a third weekend. It has now accumulated $363 million.Released on July 29, “Moon Man” earned RMB217 million ($32.4 million) between Friday and Sunday earning some 45% of the nationwide weekend total, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The film’s invulnerability underlines once again how the Chinese exhibition and distribution sector has become focused on major hits and top-heavy.There could scarcely be more powerful demonstration of that than the photographs carried over the weekend by Mainland Chinese of Hong Kong star Louis Koo apparently in tears over the disappointing box office stars for “Warriors of Future,” the sci-fi fantasy that he starred in, financed and produced.

according to Forbes, after opening on Aug. 5.

With a premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, an epic 140-minute runtime, and a starry South Korean cast that includes Kim Nam-gil (“Memoir of a Murderer”), Lee Byung-hun (“I Saw the Devil”), and Song Kang-ho (“Parasite”), Han Jae-rim’s feature “Emergency Declaration” would appear, on the surface, as a prestige-play.  Continue reading ‘Emergency Declaration’ Review: Song Kang-ho Stars In An Entertainingly Ridiculous Airplane Disaster Thriller at The Playlist.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterJordan Peele’s latest nightmare, “Nope,” has crossed $100 million at the domestic box office, marking the director’s third feature film (out of three) to achieve that benchmark.After three weeks on the big screen, the film’s North American tally stands at $100.32 million.“Nope” — starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who discover something spooky hovering around their family’s ranch — is one of the few original movies to cross the $100 million mark in pandemic times. When it comes to movies that aren’t based on existing brands or franchises, only director Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic “Elvis” ($137 million) and the Sandra Bullock-led romantic comedy “The Lost City” ($105 million) have surpassed the coveted threshold in 2022.

star Song Kang-ho leads the cast of the South Korean thriller, which hits U.S. theaters this Friday, and only ET exclusively premieres an intense first look from the pandemic drama.The film, which made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last year, kicks off when a terroristic threat that goes viral online and Korean authorities discover that a suspect has recently boarded an international flight bound for the United States.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Minions: The Rise of Gru” has been given a mainland China theatrical release date of Aug. 19, 2022.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese sci-fi comedy “Moon Man” held station at the top of the mainland China box office, albeit at a lower orbit. After ten days in cinemas its cumulative total is a fraction of a degree short of $300 million, and it operated at a higher elevation than new launch sci-fi actioner “Warriors of Future.”The strong figures came despite some cinemas remaining closed in key cities and capacity limitations remaining in place in others. Hainan Island went into lockdown over the weekend as a cluster of COVID cases emerged.