‘Captain America’ conquers at home and in Korea

It seems like it is only a matter of time before the latest installment of “Captain America” breaks the monumental 10 million admissions mark in Korean theaters.

During the long four-day holiday weekend, the action flick added some 2.4 million tickets to its total admissions count.

Since it opened on April 27, “Captain America: Civil War” has sold more than seven million tickets in Korea as of Sunday, raking in 61.6 billion won ($52.7 million).

In North American theaters as well, there were no viable competitors for the Marvel flick, which opened Saturday, about a week later than the Korean release date.

The film grossed a massive $181.8 million in North America this weekend, bumping “Iron Man 3” out of the top five all-time debuts. “Civil War” now ranks right below Marvel’s “The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which hold the third- and fourth-place spots.

It’s nearly double the opening of the previous “Captain America” film, “The Winter Soldier,” which opened to $95 million in April 2014, but that is at least partially attributable to the fact that “Civil War” is basically an Avengers movie in disguise.

After a $75 million first day, the opening was right in line with expectations, and according to comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, it is well on its way to becoming a $1 billion movie.

“We’ve become so accustomed to these massive numbers, now we’re putting up single-day numbers that would be very noteworthy opening weekends on their own,” Dergarabedian said.

In Korea, domestic detective action movie “Phantom Detective,” directed by Jo Sung-hee of “A Werewolf Boy” (2012), debuted in second place with 508,206 tickets sold during the weekend, making 4.2 billion won.

It accounted for 20 percent of weekend box office sales across 761 screens, while “Captain America” took up 65 percent from 1,771 screens.

Starring Lee Je-hoon as a reinterpreted version of Hong Gil-dong, an unorthodox hero figure in Korean folklore, the film follows Hong as he faces his villains.

Animated features showed good performances as well during this so-called month of family, which includes Children’s Day last Thursday.

The Korean animated film “Hello Jadoo,” originally a cartoon series, debuted in third place with 117,107 tickets sold.

A Chinese animation, “The Magic Brush,” was in fourth place with 69,957 tickets sold during its opening weekend.

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