Sizzling sales for Marvel’s ‘Winter Soldier’

With the nation gripped by the Sewol disaster, the ferry that sunk off the southwest coast on Wednesday, Korean audiences were not in much of a movie mood over the weekend, and most film-related promotional events were called off.

Attendance plunged nearly 30 percent last weekend from the previous one, according to the Korean Film Council, dropping to 1.02 million admissions from 1.44 million.

By comparison, in the debut weekend of “Captain America: Winter Soldier” at the end of March, the Marvel superhero film alone pulled in 1.17 million admissions.

In the fourth weekend since its release, the Captain America sequel was once again No. 1 at the Korean box office.

But its popularity fell nearly 50 percent from last weekend, attracting only 242,939 admissions from Friday to Sunday, compared to 470,751 over the previous weekend.

“Captain America: Winter Soldier” has made 29.7 billion won, or $28.6 million, since it was released on March 26.

In the No. 2 spot was another Hollywood action film, the science-fiction thriller “Divergent,” starring Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet. But with 212,933 admissions, it was considered a disappointment.

The top Korean movie last weekend was “Broken,” a thriller directed by Lee Jung-ho, which landed in third.

“Broken” had 189,515 ticket sales over the weekend to bring its 11-day haul to 801,763 admissions, or 6.4 billion won.

The next most successful Korean film was an independent movie, Lee Su-jin’s “Han Gong-ju,” which was sixth overall with 47,363 admissions.

Earning 486 million won since opening Thursday may not sound impressive, but “Han Gong-ju” is a small-scale film with no celebrities in its cast.

The movie tells the tragic story of a girl who loses her friend in a gang rape, and it has already won praise at several global film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Deauville Asian Film Festival in France.

Despite the dark subject matter, “Han Gong-ju” earned strong word-of-mouth praise and favorable reviews by movie critics.

Other top movies last weekend included the religious film “Son of God,” which was in fourth place with 68,100 admissions, and the video-game-based “Need For Speed,” which debuted in fifth with 60,654 admissions.

By JIN EUN-SOO, CONTRIBUTING WRITER [estyle@joongang.co.kr]