Korea Box Office: ‘Sleep’ Sleepwalks Into Weekend Top Spot

The South Korean box office got a new chart topper with mystery drama Sleep, but the weekend was a sleepy affair.

Sleep earned $2.97 million over the weekend, according to Friday to Sunday data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Over its full opening five days, it grossed $3.97 million.

The film, which had its world premiere in Cannes in May, is the tale of a newly-married couple whose relationship is challenged by the mans nightly disturbances, in which he claims that someone else is inside him. Sleep is directed by Jason Yu and produced by Lewis Kim at Lewis Pictures.

The top-ranked new release meant that Oppenheimer slipped to second place after three weeks on top. Oppenheimer earned $1.09 million to expand its cumulative total in Korea to $24.0 million. That is now the tenth highest score of 2023.

Concrete Utopia, the disaster action-drama that is Koreas Oscars contender, was third over the weekend with $574,000. Its cumulative total, earned since Aug. 9, is $27.4 million.

Comedy, Honeysweet held fourth place with$561,000 over the weekend, for a cumulative $9.15 million. Thriller, Dont Buy the Seller earned $399,000 over the weekend. Its 12-day cumulative stands at $2.69 million.

Elemental, which is already the second highest-scoring film of the year, earned $292,000. Its running total now stands at $52.9 million.

Re-released Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earned $223,000 in seventh place over the weekend.

Smugglers, the biggest hit of the Korean summer season, added $144,000 over the weekend. Its cumulative total $37.0 million, earned since July 26.

The 2019-produced Australian animated comedy The Wishmas Tree was only the second new release to penetrate the weekend top ten. It earned $57,800 over the weekend and $64,000 over its opening five days.

Korean horror, Body Parts took slipped from sixth place to tenth in its second weekend. After 12 days it has a cumulative of $355,000.

The weekends aggregate box office came in at $6.83 million and marks a continuation of a slowing trend. It was the fourth weekend-on-weekend decline and the lowest weekend score in more than four months. Looking forward, the downturn may come to an end with a crop of new releases coming out over the next two weeks in time for the extended Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, holiday season.