Mickey 17

Source: Screenshot courtesy of Warner Bros.

‘Mickey 17’

Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 has become the highest-grossing film of the year to date at the South Korea box office.

Warner Bros’ sci-fi feature, starring Robert Pattison, added $2.2m on its third weekend of release to reach $17.8m, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service.

This places it above local action-comedy Hitman 2, which took $16.5m following its release in January.

Mickey 17 drew 323,566 admissions from Friday to Sunday (March 14-16), accounting for more than 43% of all ticket sales and bringing its total admissions to 2.6 million.

Among international markets, director Bong’s home nation is by far the strongest and has taken $90.5m worldwide.

The film’s strong box office performance is expected to continue until the end of the month, with no major competitors until the March 26 release of sports drama The Match, starring Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun.

Bong’s biggest hit to date remains Oscar-winner Parasite, which grossed $71.4m in South Korea, $53.8m in North America and $262.6m worldwide.

Ranking second in South Korea over the weekend was Sony’s Japanese anime Attack on Titan The Movie: The Last Attack, which added $1.1m from 162,084 admissions for a cume of $1.36m. It opened on March 13.

Edward Berger’s political thriller Conclave came third, adding $293,964 and 43,116 admissions in its second weekend since opening for a cume of $945,500.

In fourth was homegrown horror anime Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning, adding $244,450 from 36,064 admissions for a cume of $2.92m. The movie has also been released in CJ’s 4DPlex theatres.

Fifth place went to a psychological thriller Somebody, which earned $217,979 from 33,486 admissions. The film, which opened on March 12, has a cume of $352,400.

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