South Korea claimed to have had the honor of being the first country in the world where “F9” revved into commercial release – the distinction can only have been a matter of hours, as Hong Kong cinemas followed later the same day, on May 19 – and it proved a smart choice. The franchise film finally injected some horsepower into the Korean box office, with a tap on the accelerator from Korean-American star Kang Sung back for a fourth lap.
“F9” earned 5.53 million over the weekend and $$9.83 million over its opening five days, according to data from Kobis, the box office tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Its five-day-total, means “F9” has already overtaken “Minari” to become the third biggest film of the year at the Korean box office.
“F9” accounted for fully 85% of the weekend box office, and managed to lift the nationwide weekend aggregate to $6.52 million, some 150% higher than the previous weekend’s sorry $2.60 million total.
As a first-placed film “F9” also revved at a ten time the rate of last week’s top performer “Spiral: From the Book of Saw,” which managed a sorry opening weekend of just $552,000.
The downward spin of “Spiral” continued over the most recent weekend, when it found itself falling to fourth place. Its second weekend score was just $85,400, representing an 85% week-on-week decline. After 11 days in cinemas, “Spiral” has a cumulative score of just $1.08 million.
While “F9” was the top new release of the weekend, it was not the only newcomer. Japanese animation, “Stand by Me Doraemon 2” also opened on Wednesday and took second place. It earned $215,000 over thee weekend proper and $460,000 over five days.
Another Japanese animation, “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train” showed its gyroscopic stability. Released on Jan. 27, the film managed another $173 million over the weekend, to advance its cumulative score to $17.5 million.
“The Croods : A New Age,” which topped the box office just two weeks ago, this weekend lapped at just 20% of its previous speed. It recorded a weekend take of $47,600 in sixth place, for a three-week cumulative of $1.74 million.
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