Korea Box Office: ‘The Roundup: No Way Out’ Hits $60 Million on Second Weekend, Thumps ‘Transformers’

Korean-produced crime action film The Roundup: No Way Out dominated proceedings at the South Korean cinema box office for the second successive weekend. Its massive haul now totals $60 million. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opened with a puny second place.

The Friday to Sunday period saw the film bring in $10.4 million from 1.32 million ticket sales and account for a 72% market share, according to data from Kobis, the data tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Including pre-release previews and strong midweek sales, the film has now rushed on to an aggregate of $59.6 million that has been earned from 7.78 million spectators.

The film is the third in a local franchise starring Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) in the lead role as a violent and crudely effective policeman, dubbed as a beast cop. In this episode, he is on the trail of two bad guys and a new drug,

It passed the seven million ticket sales landmark in just 11 days of official release. That is quicker than the three weeks needed for last years second instalment The Roundup. But the extensive previewing for the new film blurs the comparisons somewhat.

Nationwide weekend box office totaled $14.4 million, down from the previous weekends $25 million aggregate.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was the weekends top new-release title with $2.29 million earned from 285,000 spectators between Friday and Sunday, worth 15% of the total market. Over its full, five-day opening period, Transformers gathered $4.50 million from 569,000 spectators.

Re-run title, Pokemon: Arceus to the Conquering of Space Time took third place with $453,000 for a 3.1% market share. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 took fourth place with $351,000. Its total since an early May release adds up to $33.9 million, making it the fourth-ranked film released this year in Korea.

Disneys The Little Mermaid, which has proved controversial in Korea, was the only other title with a more than 1% share of the market. In fifth place, it took $191,000 for a three-week cumulative of $5.03 million.