Korean Box Office Update: “Demon Slayer” Keeps Crown, “The Ugly” Opens Big.
The unstoppable “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle” held first place in the Korean box office for the fourth weekend in a row, earning $2.6 million from 330,444 tickets sold from September 12 to 14. The animated blockbuster has now racked up $34.8 million domestically, securing its spot as the top film worldwide, according to Comscore.
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South Korea’s own mystery thriller, “The Ugly,” charged in behind it, claiming $2.1 million from 281,924 admissions. The film, directed and co-written by Yeon Sang-ho, has a total of $2.4 million since it opened. The cast includes Park Jeong-min, Kwon Hae-hyo, Shin Hyun-been, Im Seong-jae, and Han Ji-hyun.
The story revolves around Dong-hwan, the blind seal-engraving master’s son. He stumbles on a set of skeletal remains and digs up a secret tied to his mother’s disappearance more than forty years ago.
In third place, the Brad Pitt racing movie “F1” pulled in 78,063 ticket buyers, banking $415,168. This bumps its total to $38.6 million. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” came in fourth, drawing $582,016 in its three-week run to hit $2.7 million since its September 3 debut. Just behind, the Korean crime film “Murder Report” nabbed $537,690, giving it $2.1 million overall. Directed by Cho Young-jun, the film stars Cho Yeo-jeong and Jung Sung-il. It centers on a reporter who sits down with a serial killer boasting of 11 murders.
“At number six, the Korean comedy-horror “My Daughter is a Zombie” made $237,129 to reach a total of $37.9 million. The newly released horror “Homecam” arrived at the No. 7 spot with $287,052, and the 4K re-release of Studio Ghibli’s “Princess Mononoke” pulled in $238,734, adding up to a modest $437,239.
In ninth place, the documentary sequel “The Birth of Korea 2” opened to $105,638 in 14,149 tickets sold. It follows the first film by covering the Republic’s founding years in Korea’s modern history.
The Chinese romance Just For Meeting You closed the weekend chart with $93,327, pushing its total to $912,836. Directed by Liu Yulin, the movie features Liu Haocun as Xu Nian Nian and Song Weilong as Yang Yi. Based on a best-selling young-adult novel, it follows a transfer student whose fierce competition with the school’s top achiever slowly blossoms into gentle love. When the pair encounter each other years later, the story asks if they can finally acknowledge the feelings they buried during their school days.
The overall top ten films earned $8.1 million combined for the weekend, a slight drop from the $8.3 million collected the week before.
