Korea Box Office: ‘Top Gun Maverick’ beats ‘decision to leave’

Top Gun Maverick flew even higher in its second weekend at the Korean box office, retaining the top spot and slightly increasing its gross box office. The sky-high performance was more than enough to overshadow the otherwise promising opening of Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave.”

“Top Gun Maverick” earned $9.72 million between Friday and Sunday with a 59% market share, according to data from Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s (Kofic) tracking service. That compares to $9.55 million and a 57% market share on its debut weekend. After 12 days in Korean theaters, the film has grossed $27.6 million.

The meticulously crafted Decision, which won Park the Best Director award at Cannes in May, provided interesting counter-programming to the unabashed spectacle of Top Gun Maverick. It opened brilliantly at $2.57 million over the weekend, which translates to a 16% share, and $3.84 million in the first five days.

The Witch: Part 2. The Other One earned $1.73 million in its third weekend, bringing its total to $21.0 million. Crime action film The Roundup earned $1.62 million in fourth place, taking its total earnings to $99 million as of May 18.

There was relatively thin prey behind the top four. “Lightyear” earned $222,000 for a total of $2.63 million. And Korea’s other Cannes winner, Broker, earned $80,000 after four weekends for a total of $9.16 million.

While there remains extreme polarization between the top titles and the followers, the monthly figures show that the June box office is holding on to May’s comeback gains. The country dropped most of its COVID protocols in early May, allowing cinema to bounce back.

Gross revenue for June was KRW 158 billion (US$122 million), slightly up from KRW 150 million (US$116 million) in May in local currency terms. 15.5 million tickets were sold in June compared to 14.6 million in May.