Korea Box Office: ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Dashes to Day One Lead
Fresh from its Cannes premiere George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” dashed into the lead at the South Korea cinema box office. In doing so, it deposed “The Roundup: Punishment,” the local crime actioner that has dominated Korean cinemagoing for the past month.
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“Furiosa” earned $575,000 from 75,400 ticket sales on Wednesday, giving it a Korean total of $597,000, including a sprinkling of preview showings, according to data from the Kobis tracking service that is operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).
South Korea was not the only territory to enjoy the “Furiosa” release on May 22 – others included France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines – but by virtue of its geography and reliable, publicly-available data, it becomes the first to report the film’s commercial credentials.
Korea is also an important box office market. It had ranked as the world’s fourth largest in the pre-pandemic era, helped in part by audiences’ particularly high rate of attendance. Since then, the market has recovered more slowly than many others. And Hollywood has endured some notable flops in the territory – recently, “The Fall Guy” dropped out of the Korean top ten in its second weekend and scored only $1.6 million after two weeks – but “Furiosa” looks set to make a more solid showing.
Its first day total represented 37% of Wednesday’s nationwide theatrical take in Korea. The film also heads the advanced booking tables, with a 38% share of pre-sales and a 20-percentage point lead over Korean crime thriller “The Plot,” which releases on May 29.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world before the events of “Fury Road,” “Furiosa” stars Anya Taylor-Joy, taking over in the title role from Charlize Theron. Early in the film, a young Furiosa is kidnapped and imprisoned by a group of bandits known led by Warlord Dementus, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth.
The Australia-produced film debuted a week ago at the Cannes Film Festival, where its gala screening earned a six-minute standing ovation. Variety has reported that “Furiosa,” looks poised to lead the North American box office with $40 million to $45 million, from 3,750 venues, over the coming four-day holiday weekend.
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