'Chiikawa the Movie' Tops the South Korean Box Office for a Third Straight Weekend, Passing 2.58 Million Admissions
The Japanese animated film 'Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island' cannot be stopped in South Korea. According to KOBIS, the Korean Film Council's box office tracking service, the film earned $1.7 million from 221,651 admissions over the October 30 to November 1 weekend, topping the South Korean chart for a third consecutive weekend with a 32.1 percent market share across 1,167 screens.
Released in South Korea on September 30, the film has now grossed $20.1 million in the market from 2,583,851 admissions. Brad Pitt's Hollywood thriller 'Heart of the Beast' opened the same weekend in second place. The overall Korean market took in about $5.3 million for the weekend, down from $5.6 million the week before.
'Chiikawa' is adapted from Japanese artist Nagano's hit manga about a group of tiny, adorable creatures. What began as social media comics has become one of Asia's biggest character properties, with merchandise and collaborations filling stores across Japan, South Korea and China. The film, distributed by Toho and directed by Kei Oikawa, follows Chiikawa and friends on an adventure to a mermaid island.
That a Japanese cartoon can outdraw new Hollywood releases in South Korea for three straight weeks speaks to the stickiness of character IP: much of its audience is not children, but adult fans. (Box office data: KOBIS, as reported by Variety.)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 影院放映厅（资料图）。图片来源：Sdkb／Wikimedia Commons（CC BY-SA 4.0）
