The recent box office battle of the Heirs leads has a victor! In a resounding victory, Lee Min Ho‘s Gangnam 1970 had the best movie opening (rank and receipts) of all the movies headlining the Heirs three which all opened within one to two weeks of each other. First came The Royal Tailor with Park Shin Hye and the solid cast of leading men in Han Suk Kyu, Go Soo, and Yoo Yeon Seok. It opened weakly in 5th place, dropped to 9th by the second week, and was buh bye out of the top 10 by the third week. Kim Woo Bin‘s The Con Artists opened in 2nd place that same week but also has had large week-to-week drops and by the 4th week was out of the top 10.
The box office numbers have just come out for last weekend’s premiere of Gangnam 1970 and it opened number 1 and managed to dethrone six-week leader Ode to My Father. Congrats to Min Ho-sshi, being a popular Hallyu and drama star does not guarantee box office success at all in the domestic South Korean market. Another indicator for Gangnam 1970’s success over the other films is in the form of decent to good reviews whereas The Royal Tailor and The Con Artists got pretty blah critical and audience feedback. Looks like Chungmuro has opened the door to Lee Min Ho to cross over.
The media pundits have been keeping a close watch on the box office for the last month since it’s holiday season so the ticket sales have been brisk, plus Ode to My Father is one of those once-in-a-blue moon blockbusters, even though it fell to 3rd place in its 7th week in theaters, its cumulative ticket sales have now made it the 8th most watched Korean movie of all time. Wowsers. In addition to the Heirs three, another popular young actor in Lee Seung Gi also had a movie opening during this competitive month with Love Forecast starring Moon Chae Won.
The movie opened in a close 2nd place to Ode to My Father, but the next week fell over 50% in sales but still managed to hold on to 4th place behind Gangnam 1970, Big Hero Six, and Ode to My Father. Since rom-coms like Love Forecast naturally cost a lot less to film than action pieces like The Con Artists and the lavish costuming costs of sageuks like The Royal Tailor, I think the box office haul for Seung Gi’s movie will be considered a solid success vis-a-vis expenses. That makes the final verdict a win for Lee Min Ho and Lee Seung Gi and better luck next time for Park Shin Hye and Kim Woo Bin.
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Actually, The Con Artists had 1.4m admissions after the first weekend compared to 1.0m for Gangnam 1970. And the admissions will normally drop in subsequent weeks. Exceptions are the blockbusters like Ode to Father.
Exactly, The Con Artist first weekend admissions were higher than Gangnam 1970. The Con Artist opening weekend went against Ode to My Father first few weeks of admission. So of course it did not open in first place, since Ode to My Father is a huge HIT.
Gangnam opened in first place because the competition is much weaker.
A true winner can't be announced until after all three films finish their theatre run in Korea. Con Artist has total admissions of 2.5 million. Who knows if Gangnam will top this. It will be very close race in final receipts between these two films. Regardless of the outcome, none of the films by Heirs actors are shaping up to be a blockbuster hit in Korea.
LMH and KWB are newbies in Chungmuro. These numbers they are gathering are very good. Gangnam70 has best opening for a gangster noir movie and Con Artists' 2.5 million admissions are considered a hit.
All 3 films are doing quite well, after all 1m admissions in the first week is no small feat. Hopefully, they can all make profits.
Agree that first, second, third placings are relative to the competition. It would have been interesting to see how Gangnam1970 would have fared if it had opened earlier against stronger competition or even against KWB's or LSG's films, since G70 was supposed to air in December originally, and had postponed their opening to a more advantageous timing.
I got a free ticket to watch Ode to my Father tomorrow. Too bad I'm sick, it's screening in Toronto right now
Love forecast was at #1 for a couple days right after it opened.
Gangnam 1970 is getting good reviews too while others movies are below average.
I'm happy Lee Minho is finally getting love from critics. I hope he stay away from crappy dramas.
Let's see what will happen to gangnam 1970 in the next weeks,,
Gangnam 1970 is not really doing that well in box office,they got more than 1M viewers in six days just like Love Forecast did which is a romcom. If they continue to at least get decent admissions everyday I think they could at least have more viewers than Con Artists but I'm happy that GB had decent reviews. What sad is for "The Tailor",though the casts are getting praised it flopped terribly bcoz' of its story..And Ode to my Father is really amazing it still doing well..
actually, G70 does quite good as it s a rated movie, compared to other movies, G70 has a smaller market
LMH's movie isn't really doing that well though, it does really depend on what it does this week. KWB's movie did decently. PSH's movie just plan flopped horribly. Love Forecast is less than what they wanted (which what they wanted was insane tbh), but it's still a solid outing especially given the mediocre reviews and it being a romcom. It's a solid start with LSG's movie career anyway.
I'd say there was no winner, except Ode to My Father which basically kicked everyone's ass.
Gangnam 1970 had great opening for a 18+ movie. So I think it's doing quite well.
Love forecast is also rated 15+
I agree with you.I am.glad G 1970 got good reviews but a lot depends on this week like you said. Love Forecast already has almost 1.6 million admissions, so it's doing quite well for a romcom, Moon Chae Won and Lee Seung Gi can relax a bit.
I checked the box office stats and posted some below, and looking at Gamgnam 1970 numbers it's very premature to declare it a true hit. All films fall by alot after their first weekend, and let's not forget the competing films...
I am quite sure that Kim Rae Won had ALOT to do with its success as well!!!!
word. i'll be watching this for KRW; he's pretty solid for me.
yes !!! its not appropriate to mention the victory of G70 without mentioning KIM RAE WON even though this article is about LMH and the heirs leads
Gangnam Blues is rated 19+ which in Korea means one has to show an ID before purchasing the ticket, while others are not teenage restricted. I think it is pretty amazing that it manages to reach wider audience given the restriction. And it's been getting good reviews overall from K critics as well, foreign Korea-based critics.
love forcast was number on on 15th jan which it was set to premier .and remained for couple of days. it's doing good. so is gangnam blues. seungiya foghting ang lee min ho no more teenage moping or the wardrobe you got you'r break again after city hunter.
wow ouch for park shin hye . i thought it will do so well.