Holdovers Continue to Dominate Depressed Market

A lack of new titles and an explosion of Covid anxiety amidst rising case numbers and Omicron variant concerns once again led to a depression of sales at the box office with numbers slowing about one-third down to 389,000 sales over the weekend. A pair of domestic holdovers led the charts, giving local titles a 48% share of the market.

The well-received local romcom Nothing Serious, the debut of director Jeong Gayoung, rose two spots to first place after a soft 28% drop in week three. The film added 76,000 viewers (USD 669,000) to bring its haul to 529,000 admissions (USD 4.56 million).

The action-thriller Spiritwalker with Yoon Kyesang slid one spot and 44% in its third weekend, during which it clinched another 74,000 sales (USD 648,000). To date, the film has brought in 766,000 spectators (USD 6.32 million).

Disney’s Encanto was off 40% and slipped to third with 64,000 entries (USD 540,000) banked over the frame, pushing its total to 538,000 sales (USD 4.35 million).

Netflix’s Don’t Look Up opened in a limited run in theaters with 34,000 seats (USD 300,000) filled in fourth place and 54,000 tickets (USD 453,000) sold over its first five days.

The acclaimed sci-fi Dune remained a threat after close to two months in theaters. The film was down 37% and flat in fifth place with 28,000 viewers (USD 288,000) welcomed over the weekend. Its total now stands at 1.54 million admissions (USD 14.22 million).

Despite Covid fears, the business should get a significant boost this coming weekend with the launch of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third Tom Holland-fronted Marvel title. The highly anticipated sequel accounted for an enormous 92% of all pre-sales as of Monday morning.