Korea Box Office: ‘The Roundup’ Blasts to $21 Million Opening Weekend

Big Bang member T.O.P was spotted reportedly filming a music video in Manhattan, New York recently, sparking speculations of a solo comeback.Earlier this week, South Korean news outlet The Fact shared several photos of the South Korean musician in various locations around Manhattan accompanied by a filming crew, reporting that the photos of T.O.P were taken sometime in mid-May.The outlet also claimed that the filming had taken place with strict security measures in place, but quoted local staff as saying that the filming was for an “experimental piece of work that harmonises film, music and art”.In the same report, The Fact quoted a separate unnamed inside source, who claimed that the filming was done for a “large-scale comeback project”, as translated by South Korean news publication SBS News. “It’s hard to disclose specific details, but we are preparing this content as part of a large-scale comeback project that T.O.P has been preparing with his global partners,” the insider said. “The content will depict T.O.P with his many identities ― including a singer, an actor and as a human being.”While neither T.O.P nor his representatives have yet to respond to the reports, the purported “comeback project” may mark the rapper’s first since he left longtime label YG Entertainment in February.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Broker,” the unconventional family drama which appeared in competition at last month’s Cannes Film Festival, topped the box office in South Korea on Wednesday, its opening day.“Broker” grossed $1.10 million, enough to depose crime actioner “The Roundup” from the top spot that it had enjoyed for the past three weeks and which had made it the highest performing film this year.According to data from the Kobis tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, “Broker” played on 1,590 screens and sold 145,000 tickets for Wednesday screenings. Its cumulative total of $1.15 million includes some $44,000 of previews earned on 14 screens.The feat by a local art-house film gives further support to the notion that cinema attendance is rebounding in Korea.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Jurassic World: Dominion” scored the third highest opening weekend of the year in South Korea, but still managed only second place at the box office, a further sign of recovery in the country.For the third weekend in a row, proceedings were dominated by local crime action film “The Roundup.” It earned $10.4 million over the Friday to Sunday period, down 32% from its previous weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After nearly three weeks on release, the film has an accumulated total of $73.3 million.Its cumulative total is built on 8.87 million spectators.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticOne of the most enjoyable South Korean action movies in recent years, 2017’s “The Outlaws” was a deft mix of brutal gang-warfare thrills and Keystone Cops comedics. It provided an ideal vehicle for Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee (“Train to Busan” and “Eternals”) as the police investigator whose hit-first-ask-permission-later methods regularly got the job done while infuriating his superiors.That burly protagonist and his sidekicks are back in “The Roundup,” which despite a different directorial (newbie Lee Sang-yong replacing the prior edition’s Kang Yoon-seong) and writing crew, maintains the original’s strengths.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“Jurassic World: Dominion” is off to a roaring start at the international box office.The blockbuster hopeful opened in 15 major markets this week, including the likes of Italy, Mexico and Brazil, and has already sunk its teeth into $16.7 million through Thursday. “Jurassic World: Dominion” is expected to bring in more than $45 million this weekend, giving it a healthy head start before it opens in U.S.

Broker and Decision to Leave have made history at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time two Korean works have won at the same ceremony.The upcoming Korean films Broker and Decision To Leave have both taken home one award each at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time two Korean films have won an award at the festival in the same year.South Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who rose to international prominence in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in 2019, took home the Best Actor award for his role in Broker, which was directed by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. This makes Song the second Korean, after Jeon Do-yeon for 2007’s Secret Sunshine to win the award, and the first Korean male actor to do so.During his acceptance speech, the 55-year-old actor thanked director Hirokazu Kore-eda, along with his Broker co-stars Gang Dong-won, IU, Lee Joo-young and Bae Doo-na.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLocally-produced action franchise movie “The Roundup” continued to stomp its way across the South Korean box office for a second weekend, giving theatres their best month of the year.Over the weekend. “The Roundup” rounded up $15.4 million from 2,520 screens nationwide, according to KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKore-eda Hirokazu, director of the well-received Cannes competition film “Broker” says his diverse and lonely characters constitute a family of choice.“This film tells the story of a family which came together by choice. Each character had been rejected. They set off on a car journey, as if by accident.

The Palme d’Or can be a blessing and curse, a gold-plated sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of filmmakers lucky enough to claim it. After the first waves of shock and joy recede, and their subsequent year-long victory lap reaches the finish line, those same filmmakers are left alone with one troubling thought: What’s next? Director Hirokazu Kore-eda offers a fine case study in how that question might trip someone up.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticWhile Americans’ attention is consumed with the issue of abortion, halfway across the world, director Kore-eda Hirokazu (“Shoplifters”) focuses on the alternative for mothers who carry their pregnancies to term, but can’t raise the children on their own. A warm and unexpectedly nonjudgmental look at the Korean gray market for adoption, “Broker” was inspired by the idea of “baby hatches” — essentially, a donation station for unwanted infants — and follows the director’s natural curiosity through to its most humanistic conclusion, as audiences unexpectedly come to empathize with practically everyone involved in the buying and selling of a little bundle of joy.What is Kore-eda, who is Japanese, doing making a film in South Korea, you might ask? It’s not his first time working abroad.

Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s next directorial effort is the baby-napping (kidnapping for babies) drama “Broker” which stars Song Kang-ho, who previously played the patriarch in the Best Picture winner “Parasite” and is a fixture of South Korean cinema. Kore-eda, a Japanese filmmaker, made waves in the film awards circuit with his fantastic 2018 drama “Shoplifters” which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and even etched out a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinema box office this year in North America is poised to overtake theatrical revenues in China, the country that has been the world’s largest movie market for the past two years.Before the latest weekend, gross revenues in the year to date stood at $2.38 billion for the North American compared with $2.43 billion for China, according to data from ComScore.U.K.-based research firm Gower Street Analytics forecast that the North American figure would overtake China’s revenues over the weekend or early this week. That reflects business growth in North America and the current reversal in China, where anti-COVID measures are causing renewed cinema closures.Gower Street says that some 85% of global cinemas are now open for business, compared with pre-pandemic levels.

trailer traces the origins of the Joint Economic Area, a fictionalized mint located where present-day North and South Korea are divided. While the aim of reunification is to benefit all citizens and establish a common currency, “in reality, only the rich got richer,” the trailer’s narrator says. “Welcome to capitalism,” Tokyo (Jeon Jong-seo) grimly adds.Like the original, a group of ragtag individuals assemble under the Professor’s (Yoo Ji-tae) tutelage, where they learn the inner machinations of a history-making heist.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentThe Japanese film industry has long been notoriously insular, a tendency the pandemic only exacerbated. As the Hollywood pipeline shut down in 2020, local audiences flocked to local films.

Rebecca Souw Four films, “Decision to Leave,” “Broker,” “The Hunt” and “No Return” selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival shed rays of hope for a positive uptake in the Korean film industry, severely damaged due to the COVID pandemic. Juxtaposed against a fruitful run in 2019, the year Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” won the Palme d’Or, the massive slow down of the industry saw box office sales plummeting, sizable shrinking of the business, theater closures and a backlog of unreleased filmsAt last year’s Busan Film Festival’s Asian Contents & Film Market veteran film director Park Chan Wook said the release date for “Decision to Leave” was uncertain and as no one is rushing, the team is constantly retouching parts of the film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefA crew of thieves including Tokyo, an ex-soldier, unite under the leadership of a mastermind known as the Professor to plan an unprecedented heist – stealing money yet to exist! If that sounds familiar, it should.The twist is that Netflix hit series La Casa De Papel (Money Heist) has been given a cool Korean favor.First-look footage is now available. And the K-drama reinterpretation “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area Part 1” premieres from June 24.The plot twist is that Korea is on the verge of unification and there is a Joint Security Area – located where today’s North and South Korea are divided – which contains a mint that becomes the focus of the action.