Korea Box Office: ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Wins Its Debut Weekend

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ryoo Seung-wan, the South Korean film director who was last month in Cannes with “I, The Executioner,” says that his next picture will be an espionage action movie. It is pitched as “depicting North and South Korean secret agents clashing while [also] uncovering crimes occurring at the border with Vladivostok, Russia.” Currently titled, “HUMINT,” a reference to espionage industry’s shorthand for collection of intelligence through humans, rather than signals or data, the new film is to be produced by his Filmmaker R&K company and distributed by NEW. Ryoo also says that throughout his career he has sought to change genres and that “HUMINT” will represent a “more mature espionage action” picture than some of his previous efforts. Ryoo will release “I, The Executioner” at an unspecified date in the second half of this year. He has already settled the casting of “HUMINT” and has scheduled full-scale production of the new movie to begin in October. The cast is headed by Zo In-sung, Park Jeong-min, Park Hae-joon and Nana.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A three-hour hugging marathon in Seoul, South Korea, is set to be among the first public engagements of Jin, the oldest member of K-pop supergroup BTS, after being discharged on Wednesday from his 18 months of mandatory military service. Some 1,000 fans of the pop star were chosen in a raffle. They will meet him on Thursday at this year’s BTS FESTA, an annual celebration of the band’s debut anniversary, to be held at the Seoul Sports Complex.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.S-produced film and TV content has maintained leadership in terms of reach among Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) users in nine major markets in Asia-Pacific. And it remains important for acquiring and maintaining subscriptions, a new report finds. New research from consultancy firm Media Partners Asia is based on passively-collected data from 40,000 digital users amassed by its AMPD sister company.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Sky Castle,” one of the most iconic Korean TV drama series of recent years, is to be remade by TV Asahi in Japan. The move follows the signing of a cooperation agreement between Korean content powerhouse SLL (previously known as JTBC Studios) and TV Asahi just last month. The two companies say that the Japanese retread is already filming and will begin to air from July.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” a hit in multiple other markets worldwide, crashed on its first lap at the South Korean box office. It failed to make even $1 million in on its opening weekend. Instead, “Wonderland,” a sci-fi fantasy about Artificial Intelligence, took the top spot over the weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading K-pop acts including Enhypen, INI and Kep1er, which this week released new album “Kep1ergoing,” are all set to appear next month at KCON LA 2024. The CJ ENM-backed event in Los Angeles, comprising a convention and multi-act concert series, will feature at least 25 group and solo acts from South Korea. It runs over three days from July 26-28 at the Crypto.com Arena, LA Convention Center and Gilbert Lindsay Plaza and has set Korean tech giant Samsung as its title sponsor.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Going all-in on its exploration of the role of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) has unveiled a 15-title AI Film competition. The films will compete for jury-selected and audience awards and cash prizes of up to KRW1.5 million ($11,000).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” maintained a narrow win at the South Korea weekend box office in its second week of release. The highest new release was local crime drama “The Plot.” Total weekend revenues in Korean cinemas were a modest $8.91 million. That figure keeps a post-COVID recovery on course, but progress is slow and incomplete.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Joel Pearlman, one of the best-known names in Australian cinema, is to step down from his role as CEO of Roadshow Films after 30 years with the Village Roadshow organization. Pearlman’s tenure saw him oversee the organization as built a diverse slate from local and global studios, licensors, and production companies including Warner Bros, Lionsgate, Village Roadshow Pictures, A24, FilmNation, Made Up Stories and Arenamedia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Los Angeles- and Bangkok-based film sales joint venture EST N8 is expanding into theatrical distribution in parts of Southeast Asia. As a first step, it will release the Michael Mann-directed “Ferrari” in Thailand on Thursday and in Myanmar on June 21. The film, which premiered in Venice in September last year, was released in other territories between December and February.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two South Korean superstars Gianna Jun and Gang Dong-won head the cast of “Tempest,” an espionage action drama series being readied by streaming service Disney+ for release next year. The contemporary Korea-set story sees Jun portray a highly-accomplished diplomat and former ambassador to the U.S.

according to The Numbers.The Post called the movie, which is both a spin-off and prequel to 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, “a brutal, exhilarating quest for revenge.”Since it is expected to earn between $31 and $33 million over the four-day holiday weekend, it appears that “Furiosa” will take the title of lowest Memorial Day opening in 41 years, according to Deadline.“The Garfield Movie,” which also opened on Friday, landed in second place with $8.4 million in sales.The New York Times called the animated adventure comedy “an inert adaptation that mostly tries to skate by on its namesake.”The character of Garfield is voiced by Chris Pratt, which the New York Times also bashed as “an overly spunky casting choice that was doomed from the start.”The live-action fantasy comedy “If,” which was in first place last Friday, its first day in theaters, took third place, with earnings of $4.3 million.The movie, which centers around a young girl who sees others’ imaginary friends, marks the first time real-life husband and wife Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds starred in the same movie since 2011’s “Green Lantern.”Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which was in second place last week, slid down to fourth, with a $3.4 million take.The action comedy “Fall Guy,” which was in fourth place last week, moved down a notch to fifth, taking in $1.6 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fresh from its Cannes premiere George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” dashed into the lead at the South Korea cinema box office. In doing so, it deposed “The Roundup: Punishment,” the local crime actioner that has dominated Korean cinemagoing for the past month. “Furiosa” earned $575,000 from 75,400 ticket sales on Wednesday, giving it a Korean total of $597,000, including a sprinkling of preview showings, according to data from the Kobis tracking service that is operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Recently, confirmed to star in Park Chan-wook’s new film “The Ax,” Korea’s Son Ye-jin is set as the subject of the Bucheon International Fantastic Festival (BiFan)’s annual actor focus. Previous honorees include Jeon Do-yeon, Jung Woo-sung, Kim Hye-soo, Seol Kyung-gu, and Choi Min-sik.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Delivery Man,” the next film project for hit-making Thai director Kongkiat Komesiri has been picked up by Los Angeles- and Bangkok-based EST N8. The company is launching it at the Cannes Market, adjacent to the Cannes Film Festival. Komesiri, known for his hit “Khun Pan” film trilogy, popular BL series “KinnPorsche” and horror films including “Slice” and “Art of the Devil II.” The new film, which he also wrote, is pitched as “a spine-chilling horror experience [..

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 27-member European Film Agency Directors Association and the Asian Film Alliance Network, which was established this time last year and currently has seven members, have agreed to work together on topics of common interest and to jointly develop a better world film ecosystem. At a meeting this week held on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, EFAD and AFAN promised to enhance understanding and collaboration between Asian and European national film agencies. Topics included: dialog on policy and regulations; the development of the film industry in both regions; and addressing new media and challenges ahead. Separately, the founding AFAN members convened for a closed-door roundtable discussion on May 16.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Local blockbuster, “The Roundup: Punishment” extended its dominance of the South Korea theatrical box office for a fourth weekend. That lifted its cumulative total to a powerful $75 million. “Punishment,” the fourth part of a brutal action comedy film franchise produced by and starring Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok), earned $3.05 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hit crime thriller “The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon” received 13 nominations for the upcoming Taipei Film Festival’s Taipei Film Awards. These include nominations for best feature, best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actress, and best supporting actor.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga received a six-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, reportedly leaving the cast and director George Miller emotional.The film, which is set for wide release on May 23, stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth and serves as a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Zoë Kravitz.In the prequel, Taylor-Joy stars as a younger version of Theron’s character, who is snatched by the sadistic warlord Dementus (Hemsworth). Forced to ride through the Wastelands with a great biker horde, Furiosa must fight to find her way home while Dementus and fellow tyrant Immortal Joe battle for dominance in the desert.Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga debuted at Cannes yesterday (May 15), and was met with a lengthy standing ovation, as is tradition at the French film festival.Variety reported that Hemsworth grew emotional during the applause, while the actor was also filmed kissing director George Miller on the head.

CANNES – George Miller’s “Furiosa” got a warm reception from global critics and the Cannes Film Festival faithful last night, and it already has many wondering if another “Mad Max” film is in the works. Miller has often told the story about how “Fury Road: A Mad Max Saga” was only made after scripts provided the back stories for Furiosa (originally played by Charlize Theron) and Max (Tom Hardy) were completed.