New releases can’t knock ‘Gonjiam’ from top spot

Local horror movie “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum” held onto its place at the top of the local box office for the second consecutive weekend. It was followed closely by the new comedy flick from director Lee Byeong-heon, “What A Man Wants.”

In a quiet box office weekend, “Gonjiam” managed to stay at the top of the local box office by selling 514,000 tickets at 950 screens, accounting for 27 percent of the entire weekend ticket sales. Since its release on March 28, the horror flick from director Jeong Beom-sik, who previously directed the 2007 horror film “Epitaph,” has sold a total of 2.25 million tickets.

The film, starring a cast of rookie actors, is set in the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, which CNN Travel named one of the “Seven Freakiest Places on the Planet” in 2012.

Close behind was the R-rated comedy flick “What A Man Wants.” Adapted from the 2011 Czech rom-com “Men in Hope,” the Korean remake sold 504,000 admissions at 985 screens from Friday to Sunday, taking up 26.2 percent of the weekend’s ticket sales.

Starring Lee Sung-min, Shin Ha-kyun, Song Ji-hyo and EL, the film sheds light on the loneliness felt by everyday adults.

Coming in third was Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi action movie “Ready Player One,” which attracted 473,000 people to theaters.

Veteran actor Lee Soon-jae’s latest heartwarming family feature “Stand By Me,” which highlights the value of family with special attention to the relationship between a dying grandfather and his two grandchildren, debuted at fourth, selling 108,000 tickets.

Horror movie “A Quiet Place,” which debuted at the top of the North American box office, arrived in ninth place in Korea, with 17,000 tickets sold. Starring Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, who also directed the film, the film tells the story of a family forced to live life in silence after mysterious creatures that hunt using their acute hearing threaten the family’s survival.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]