Korea Box Office: ‘F9’ and ‘Cruella’ Power Second Weekend of Recovery

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCJ ENM, the South Korean entertainment giant behind “Parasite,” has struck a strategic alliance with Japanese terrestrial broadcast group Tokyo Broadcasting System.The deal, announced Tuesday, will see the joint production of content for the global market and cooperation in other new business areas.

It already saw off Donald Trump, now K-pop is threatening to cause the collapse of North Korea. Or so fears that nation’s leader Kim Jong-un, as South Korean pop music gains popularity in the country.Kim has called South Korean entertainment smuggled into North Korea via China a “vicious cancer”, according to the New York Times.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“F9” became the most-watched foreign film in South Korea since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic on another weekend where Hollywood and Japanese titles dominated the South Korean box office.The weekend box office chart was headed by “Cruella,” which held strong in its third frame and swapped places with newer “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.”“Cruella” scored $1.82 million according to data from Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s film tracking service,

SEOUL, South Korea -- Bringing her camera to a home for unwed mothers on South Korea’s Jeju island, Sun Hee Engelstoft anticipated an empowering story about young women keeping their babies.Instead, she ended up with a raw and unsettling documentary about how a deeply conservative sexual culture, loose birth registration laws and a largely privatized adoption system continue to pressure and shame single mothers into relinquishing their children for adoption.The shock and grief of mother-child

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefTheatrical box office in the Asia Pacific region is recovering from the lows established early last year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. But South Korea has not shared in the upswing.Data from OpusData compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence showed a 79% increase in the first four months of 2021, compared with the same period in 2020.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSouth Korea enjoyed its biggest weekend box office of 2021 propelled, unusually, by a trio of Hollywood titles. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” topped the chart with a $2.68 million haul, ahead of “Cruella” and “F9.”Aggregate national box office for the three days from Friday to Sunday was $7.12 million, according to data from the Korean Film Council’s Kobis tracking system.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeWiip, the independent studio behind recent HBO hit “Mare of Easttown” and Apple TV Plus’ breakout “Dickinson,” has been acquired by South Korean TV drama production firm JTBC Studios.JTBC Studios will take a majority ownership in wiip, while CAA, which had previously been the majority owner of the company, will now move to a minority stake.

South Korean entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM is eyeing a bigger role on the world stage, saying it will invest more than 5 trillion won ($4.5B) in content creation over the next five years. The company behind Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar winner Parasite and Fox’s I Can See Your Voice has already set aside 800B won ($721M) for productions this year, CEO Kang Ho-sung said at a press conference in Seoul today, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCJ ENM, the Korean corporation behind Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” and the “Snowpiercer” TV series, is to expand its investment in entertainment content to a massive $4.4 billion over the next five years.The company is already one of Asia’s largest entertainment companies, but it is now seeking to achieve global significance.“We will move on to the world stage and compete with global platforms and media powerhouses,” said CJ ENM CEO Kang Ho-sung at a press

BTS rapper and songwriter Kim Namjoon, better known as RM, has said that the NBC sitcom Friends helped him learn to speak English. The best-selling Korean pop group appeared on the newly released Friends reunion special, as one of several celebrity guests to voice their admiration for the series.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“SNL Korea,” a Korean localized version of long-running U.S. sketch comedy and variety show “Saturday Night Live,” is confirmed to return for a tenth season from this summer.NBC Universal previously announced plans for a revival in February.Production is underway following an agreement between NBCUniversal Formats, part of Universal Studio Group, and Coupang Play, the streaming platform launched at the end of last year by e-commerce leader Coupang.

GOT7 singer BamBam has confessed that he wishes to be “properly recognised” in Korea, and has chosen to focus on his Korean solo activities moving forward.In a new interview with Allure Korea, the singer reflected on the difference in reception in both Korea and his home country of Thailand, saying, “I can walk around [in Korea] with ease.” He then added, “I can’t do anything in Thailand.

Naman Ramachandran Fremantle has acquired production rights to format “The Masked Dancer” in 29 territories across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.The dance guessing show is a spin-off format of “The Masked Singer” originally created by MBC in South Korea. It sees celebrity contestants wear head-to-toe costumes and face masks that conceal their identities, while performing a dance.