‘Prosecutor’ stays strong for a second week

After taking movie theaters by storm during the long Lunar New Year holiday last week, local crime comedy “A Violent Prosecutor” again topped the box office over the weekend.

Accounting for 61.1 percent of all box office sales for the second weekend of February, the film, starring Hwang Jung-min and Gang Dong-won as an unlikely duo plotting revenge, sold a total of 1.3 million tickets from Friday to Sunday across 1,644 screens nationwide.

The movie’s two-week total now stands at eight million tickets sold, which roughly translates to 64.5 billion won ($53.4 million).

DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 3” was spotted in second place with 366,470 tickets sold, bringing its three-week total to 3.7 million ticket admissions.

Surprisingly, in the third spot was Marvel’s blockbuster “Deadpool,” which is yet to be released nationwide. The film, which tells the story of an unorthodox superhero played by Ryan Reynolds, has been a hit overseas.

The film drew 88,006 ticket attendees to special preview sessions over the weekend. It opens nationwide on Wednesday.

Todd Haynes’ beautifully crafted Oscar-nominated film “Carol” continued to do well in the crowded theaters, coming in fifth place with 75,224 theatergoers at 282 screens nationwide.

The film has sold slightly more than 220,186 tickets over the past two weeks.

“The Dressmaker,” starring Kate Winslet, another small but strong film set in the 1920s in Australia, debuted in eighth place with 31,052 tickets admissions.

Winslet portrays an accomplished dressmaker named Tilly who goes back to her hometown, which banished her 25 years ago for her alleged involvement in a murder, to get revenge.

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