Korea Box Office: ‘The Odyssey’ Overwhelms ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ as Admissions Top 10 Million
"The Odyssey" continued its dominance of the South Korean box office over the weekend of 4–6 September, taking 60.92% of the market and pushing its total admissions past ten million in its fifth consecutive weekend at number one. The Christopher Nolan film's continued strength contrasts with a broader post-summer slowdown, as the overall weekend market gross fell to $9.8 million from $13.5 million the previous week, while several new local releases opened further down the chart.
"The Odyssey" earned $5.9 million from 698,384 admissions, lifting its cumulative gross to $83.2 million since its 5 August debut. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" held second place with $942,178 from 146,674 admissions, taking its total to $67.9 million. New entries included Curry Barker's horror film "Obsession" in third ($1.1 million including previews), and local titles "The Journey to Gyeongju," "Portrait of a Family" and "Power Ballad" filling out the middle of the chart, while "Detective Conan the Movie: Fallen Angel of the Highway" and "The End of Oak Street" completed the top ten.
In short
- "The Odyssey" tops Korean box office for a fifth straight weekend
- Nolan film's admissions pass ten million since its August debut
- Overall weekend market fell amid a post-summer slowdown
Explained simply
The Odyssey is a big-budget film directed by Christopher Nolan, best known for movies such as Inception and Oppenheimer. It opened in South Korea on 5 August and has since become a major hit there, holding the number one spot at the country's box office for several weeks running.
Its main rival for cinema-goers' attention has been Spider-Man: Brand New Day, part of the long-running Marvel superhero franchise, which opened around the same period and has been competing for the second-highest earnings each week. Box office figures such as these are widely tracked in the film industry as a measure of how well a title is performing commercially, based on ticket sales (admissions) and takings at cinemas.
South Korea has one of the world's more closely watched cinema markets, and weekend rankings there are often reported internationally as an indicator of a film's global box office momentum, alongside comparisons with other new releases, including smaller local and international titles competing for the remaining audience share.