Korea Box Office: ‘Waiting For Rain’ Whets Audience Appetite

Romantic drama “Waiting For Rain” became the fourth local film in as many weeks to head the Korean box office. It held off new release U.S. movie “The Courier.”

“Rain” scored $1.05 million from 122,000 admissions over the weekend, giving a five-day total of $1.41 million. Chasing, “The Courier” delivered $756,000 from 88,000 admissions, for a five-day collection of $1.05 million.

“Rain” accounted for 26% of the national weekend box office, while “The Courier” took 19%. Together they helped the weekend total to $4.07 million, near to the top end of the recent range, and a 28% week-on-week improvement.

In an attempt to help audiences overcome their hesitation distributors are trying out a range of local titles from different genres. Korean films to have topped the chart in the last month have included historical drama “The Book of Fish”, sci-fi actioner “Seobok” and mystery thriller “Recalled.” But none managed to hold on to that position for more than one weekend and revenue totals remain far below the box office performances of pre-COVID times.

Directed by Chi Jin-mo, “Rain” is an old-fashioned tale of a long-distance relationship conducted by written letter between two strangers. A man fires off a missive to his old heart throb, but she is sick and he gets a reply from the woman’s sister instead. It stars Kang Ha-neul (“I Have A Date With Spring,” Netflix’ “When The Camellias Bloom”) and Chun Woo-hee (“Han Gong-ju”).

Behind the two front-runners, three older titles were closely bunched in third, fourth and fifth places. “Recalled” earned $467,000, a week on week drop of 45%, to take third place and build a cumulative of $1.96 million after two weekend. Still going strong after nine weeks, “Minari” earned $437,000 for a total of $8.3 million. “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train” kept going with $385,000 over the weekend.

At this rate, “Demon Slayer” is likely to become the top film of the year within a week or two. Top films at the Korean box office so far this year are Disney/Pixar’s “Soul” with $17.0 million in first place, ahead of “Demon Slayer” with a running total of $16.3 million, and “Minari” with $8.32 million.

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