Hollywood rules at Korean box office once again

Hollywood films did well at the local box office again during the weekend.

George Miller’s post-apocalyptic revival “Mad Max: Fury Road” was in first place for the second week in a row, adding 586,229 admissions to its three-week total of almost 3 million. It has earned 25.6 billion won ($24 million) in Korea so far.

Another Hollywood film selling well here is Paul Feig’s comedy-action flick “Spy,” starring Melissa McCarthy and supported by Jason Statham and Jude Law.

McCarthy plays an underappreciated CIA agent who earns the chance to leave her desk job and go undercover to stop nuclear weapon trafficking.

Putting an actress not known for her sex appeal as the lead in a spy film and infusing it with a huge dose of comedy is being very well received in many countries, including Korea.

Maintaining its place in second, the film attracted 464,076 moviegoers over the weekend and has now amassed 1.5 million ticket admissions in total, or 12.3 billion won, here.

Local crime-thriller “The Chronicles of Evil” surpassed the 2 million mark over the weekend, the fourth Korean movie to achieve the feat this year.

“The Shameless,” featuring much-celebrated actress Jeon Do-yeon and on-screen love interest Kim Nam-kil opened in fourth place, selling 177,733 tickets. It was also invited to the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes festival.

Jeon plays mob mistress Hye-kyung who is paying an old debt by working at a bar. While she may be a tough-looking madam on the outside, she constantly craves love from her murder suspect boyfriend Joong-gil (Park Sung-woong).

Detective Jae-gon (Kim Nam-kil) approaches Hye-kyung to investigate the murder case, but they form a doomed relationship after spending much time together.

Disney’s latest live-action movie “Tomorrowland,” featuring George Clooney, opened in fifth with an audience of 168,428.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]