Korea Box Office: Lee Jung-jae’s ‘Hunt’ Wins Third Weekend, Climbs to $28 Million Total

Intra-Korean espionage actioner “Hunt” claimed a third weekend as the top film at the South Korea box office, while “Bullet Train” managed only a fourth-place opening.

“Hunt,” directed by and starring “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, earned a lowly $2.91 million in its third weekend of release. The figure was a 48% weekend-on-weekend decline and saw the film’s market share decline to 33%, down from 47% the previous weekend.

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“Hunt” now has a cumulative of $28.7 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing film of the year to date and the third biggest Korean title.

Lee had a busy week. He also announced a series spin-off from his 2020 hit film “Deliver Us From Evil.”

The weekend win for “Hunt” was made possible given the weakness of new release opposition. And, overall, the weekend aggregate dipped to $8.82 million, the second-lowest scoring session since the lifting of COVID restrictions at the beginning of May.

Second place was taken by a film with no official English-language title, but which translates roughly as ‘Six Shao.’ The Korean-made comedy earned $2.79 million in second place over the weekend.

“Hansan: Rising Dragon,” a period action film that has now been a month on release, held on to third place with $1.08 million. Its cumulative advanced to $53.2 million.

“Bullet Train” opened a lowly fourth with $448,000 between Friday and Sunday and $907,000 over its opening five days. That was despite the recent promotional visit to Korea by star Brad Pitt.

“Nope” dropped from third place in its opening weekend to fifth in its second frame. It took $383,000 over the weekend for a cumulative of $3.04 million after 12 days.

No other film managed more than a 2% market share. “Minions: The Rise of Gru” took $162,000 over the weekend for a cumulative of $16.2 million. New release Japanese animation, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Asakusa Arc” took $84,000. “DC League of Super Pets” took $73,000 for a three-week cumulative of $1.66 million. New opener, Norwegian art house drama “The Worst Person in the World” took ten spot with $58,000 over the weekend and $$85,000 over its opening five days.

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