Korea Box Office: ‘Steel Rain 2’ Keeps Cinemas in Motion

Action thriller “Steel Rain 2: Summit” dominated the South Korean box office in its opening weekend. In doing so, it knocked “Peninsula” from the perch where it had been for the past two weeks.

Released on Wednesday by Lotte Entertainment, “Steel Rain 2” earned $4.92 million from 663,000 admissions over the weekend. Over its five days to date, it has accumulated $7.03 million from 1.02 million ticket sales.

Directed by Yang Woo-suk, the film imagines a three-way summit meeting between North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. to finally bring to an end the Korean War that played out between 1950-53.

The film sees Jung Woo-sung play the South Korean leader, Yoo Yeon-seok portray the North Korean leader and Angus MacFadyen play the U.S. president. While the three leaders are conferring they are kidnapped by a zealous North Korean general and spirited away on a nuclear submarine.

It is a sequel to 2017 hit “Steel Rain” in which North and South Korean special agents have to cooperate to avert a military confrontation. The earlier film earned $29.7 million from 4.45 million admissions.

While the release of “Steel Rain 2” appears to mark another success for Korea’s cinema re-opening, the still sluggish pace of releasing and the lack of large new Hollywood titles is hampering growth. Aggregate box office for the top ten films increased by 44%, to $7.68 million over the weekend, compared with $5.33 million previously. But there was little depth to the chart.

“Steel Rain 2” accounted for 62% of the market, while “Peninsula” enjoyed 28%. “Peninsula” earned $2.24 million, compared with $4.51 million, a drop of 50% in its third frame. It now has a total of $25.1 million since its July 15 release.

A smash hit last year, “Aladdin” placed third with $176,000 in is second weekend of rerelease. Its market share over the weekend was a tiny 2.2%. Chinese animation, “Happy Little Submarine: Space Pals” was the only other new release film of note, earning $169,000 for a 2.1% market share from 400 screens.