The Match

Source: By4m

‘The Match’

Sports drama The Match has ended the month-long reign of Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 at the South Korean box office, taking nearly two-thirds of all tickets sold over the weekend.

The Match took $3.53m from 544,529 admissions across the weekend (March 28-30), representing nearly 62% of total market share, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service.

The film stars Lee Byung-hun, known for Squid Game and Concrete Utopia, as legendary Go player Cho Hun-hyeon and his real-life rivalry with Lee Chang-ho. Yoo Ah-in – whose drug scandal delayed the film’s opening and who was released in February after five months in prison – stars as rival Lee.

Directed by Kim Hyeong-ju, it has taken a cume of $4.4m from 700,845 admissions since its release on March 26. This puts it ahead of the opening week admissions of action comedy Hitman 2, which had been the most-watched Korean movie of the year with 604,875 admissions.

It helped push sci-fi feature Mickey 17 down to third place, having led the Korean box office since its release on February 28. The Warner Bros. feature, starring Robert Pattinson, took $403,000 from 60,892 admissions over the weekend for a cume of $19.8m from 2.96 million admissions – making it the year’s biggest film in South Korea to date.

Ranking second was Japanese anime Attack On Titan The Movie: The Last Attack, which added $613,000 across the weekend for a cume of $3.63m from 539,927 admissions since its release on March 13.

Oscar-winning Latvian animation Flow placed fourth, adding $230,000 for a total of $712,000 after two outings.

Disney’s live-action Snow White trailed in fifth with $178,000 on its second weekend for a cume of $1.1m.

Oscar-winning political thriller Conclave ranked sixth, adding $132,000 on its fourth weekend for a cume of $1.48m.

From Japan, suspense drama Last Mile came seventh with $77,000 for a cume of $126,000 while comedy The Solitary Gourmet ranked eighth, adding $76,000 for a cume of $501,000.

In ninth was local horror animation Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning, which added $40,000 for a cume of $3.1m while the top 10 was rounded out by Koran action thriller Streaming, taking $41,000 for a total to date of $672,000.