Korea Box Office: ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Dashes to Day One Lead

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 “The Gospel of the Beast,” a film from The Philippines director Sheron Dayoc, was named the best narrative feature at the Bali International Film Festival (aka Balinale) which concludes Friday. The film features a 15-year-old boy who accidentally kills a classmate, runs away and sets up an unlikely relationship with a man he barely knows.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Having received a rapturous reception a week earlier in Cannes George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” grabbed a more muted win at the South Korean box office. “Furiosa” opened with $3.35 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a 39.5% share of the weekend’s total cinema-going market.

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 The final matches of the NBA season will be screened live at selected Imax cinemas in Hong Kong and Taiwan from June 6. The screenings are the first time that Imax China, the offshoot of Imax Corp., the Canadian giant screen cinema and equipment company, offers a live sports experience. It comes as a result of a first-time deal between Imax China and NBA China.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix probes issues of sex education and societal taboos in Asia back in the 1970s in new series “Doctor Climax,” which it will upload from June 13. Supposedly drawn from real events, the show’s central character is a skin doctor who dreams of becoming a novelist. In the meantime, he moonlights as a newspaper sex-help columnist operating behind a pseudonym.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korea’s Barunson E&A has picked up world sales rights to Vietnamese horror-comedy “Don’t Cry Butterfly.” Sales will be launched this week at the Cannes Market. Written and directed by Duong Dieu Linh, the Hanoi-set film follows a housewife who uses voodoo to try and get her cheating husband fall back into love with her, but instead invites a mysterious presence into the house.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul-based film sales company, Finecut has notched pre-sales for its upcoming action-comedy “The Desperate Chase, which it is launching this week at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Cannes Market,. The film is an action comedy featuring a hot-blooded detective and a swindler who is also a master of disguise who team up to combat an evil mafia. Early rights buyers include Rights Cube for Japan, Apex Success Global for Taiwan and Mockingbird Pictures for Vietnam. Screening as a rough cut in the Cannes Market, the film is the second feature by Kim Jae-hoon, known for his debut with the body-switch action thriller “Devils,” which released in South Korea last year.