Korea Box Office: ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Takes Second Weekend Win

The Boy and the Heron supposedly the final feature film by Japanese animation maestro Miyazaki Hayao, placed on top of the south Korean box office for a second weekend. It held off challenges from a clutch of new releases, including Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Talk to Me.

The Boy and the Heron collected $2.49 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That compares with $4.55 million on its opening weekend, but it has performed strongly through the intervening week-days and now has a cumulative of $11.1 million earned since Oct. 25.

In second place was new release The Boys, a Korean crime drama whose commercial release has been somewhat delayed since its festival premieres. It played at the Busan festival in October last year and at the Rotterdam festival in January 2023. It earned $1.22 million over the weekend and $1.82 million over its first five days on release.

Korean sci-fi romance film, Love Reset took third place with $704,000 over the weekend. After a month on release, it has accumulated $15.0 million.

Acclaimed Australian horror film Talk to Me opened in fourth slot with a weekend score of $486,000 and $668,000 over its five-day opening run.

Taylor Swift opened on Friday and placed fifth by revenues (sixth by ticket sales numbers) with $303,000 between Friday and Sunday.

Korean-produced action drama Brave Citizen earned $222,000 over its second weekend on release. Since opening on Oct. 25, it has amassed $1.73 million.

Concert film My SHINee World placed seventh by revenue (tenth by ticket sales) over the weekend with $176,000. Like Taylor Swift, it opened only on Friday.

Killers of the Flower Moon earned $96,000 in its third weekend of release in Korea. Since Oct.19 it has earned a cumulative $1.1 million.

Two Japanese animation titles rounded out the Korean top ten. Blue Giant scored $84,000 for a cumulative of $657,000 after three weekends. Suzume earned $72,000, incrementally increasing its six-month running total to $43.5 million.