Korea Box Office: Train to Busan Sequel Peninsula Dominates Again in Sophomore Frame

Peninsula, the sequel to the 2016 horror-action blockbuster Train to Busan, once again topped the South Korean box office in its second weekend there, ringing up ₩5,382,236,040 Korean won from 595,111 admissions (over 80 percent of overall business in the country), a dip of just over 51% from its opening frame. That includes $265,000 USD from 51 IMAX screens, pushing its tally in the premium format to $1.06 million to date. The total for the much-anticipated sequel now stands at ₩25,134,686,700, representing 2,862,873 admissions.

Though Peninsula‘s total box office to date is lagging substantially behind that of Train to Busan‘s ₩68,154,112,339 (or 8.4 million admissions) at the same point, it nonetheless represents the first real bright spot for the Korean theatrical business since the coronavirus pandemic first hit the country in late January. Indeed, in the first six months of this year, attendance at Korean theaters decreased 70.3% versus the same period in 2019, while sales revenue decreased 70.6%.

Second place went to Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin, which took in an additional ₩292,905,420 from 44,244 admissions, bringing its total in Korea to ₩107,390,339,139. The family blockbuster first opened in the country last May and was re-released this weekend.

Among Disney’s live-action remakes, Aladdin is by far the most successful in Korea. Trailing far behind in second place is The Lion King, which finished its run in the country with ₩41,518,977,430 (over 4.7 million admissions).

Another Korean zombie film, #Alive, dropped one spot to third place in its fifth weekend, bringing in ₩132,165,740 from 20,995 admissions. The Korean film has a cume of ₩15,885,240,860 since opening in late June.

Coming in fourth was Bombshell, the Fox News exposé that first opened in Korea on July 8. In its third weekend, the Charlize Theron-Nicole Kidman-Margot Robbie dramedy brought in ₩107,748,400 from 11,863 admissions for a total to date of ₩1,398,361,640.

The French comedy-fantasy A Mermaid in Paris opened to ₩106,813,500 from 11,525 admissions, good for fifth place. The Mathias Malzieu-directed film has a total of ₩145,804,000 since opening on Thursday.

In sixth place, the very timely title Pandemic opened to ₩99,141,040 from 10,987 admissions, giving it a total of ₩150,220,600 since opening on July 22.

Rounding out the Top 10, Japanese film Blue Hour finished in seventh place with ₩76,109,820 from 8,207 admission for a total of ₩143,366,480 since opening on July 22; You As a Boy brought in ₩74,732,400 in eighth place from 8,126 admission for a tally of  ₩404,153,700 through the end of its third weekend; Disney-Pixar’s Onward finished in ninth place with ₩53,734,760 from 6,762 admissions and a total of ₩3,462,087,580; and in tenth, Super Race took in ₩44,767,280 from 5,563 admissions for a total of ₩46,781,080 since opening on July 23.