Korea Box Office: ‘Sleep’ Sleepwalks Into Weekend Top Spot

Marta Balaga Don’t trust Mads Mikkelsen with your script. “‘Casino Royale’ was the first screenplay with my name on every single page. Which also means that if you lose it, it’s on you.

Nearly 20 churches in Greater Manchester could be closed due to rising costs, it has been revealed. The plan, put forward by the Diocese of Liverpool, which oversees churches in Wigan, has already outlined four churches that will be released with another 15 vulnerable to closure.

With the nights drawing in, thoughts are turning to this year's big festive light events and there are plenty of them.

Bedraggled, befuddled and beaten. No, not Manchester United traipsing off in midweek but the Reds leaving the Brentford Community Stadium a little over a year ago.

Thousands of households in Rochdale are facing an uncertain future as Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) seeks to remove powers from tenants and employees.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A+E Networks is continuing its investment in Korean entertainment content with “A Good Day to Be a Dog,” a fantasy romantic comedy that will upload from Oct. 11. Within Korea, the show will play on public broadcaster MBC and Lifetime Korea, releasing at the rate of one episode per week, every Wednesday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix and SK Broadband, one of South Korea’s largest internet service providers, said that they were ending all their lawsuits and would instead create a strategic partnership to provide better entertainment experiences to Korean customers. The legal dispute began in 2020 over whether content providers that generate large amounts of traffic should pay “network usage fees” in addition to the bills paid by the household end users, or whether that would go against the principle of net neutrality and lead to higher costs for consumers. Netflix said that it could offer a technological solution to traffic volume that it had provided to ISPs in other countries and to rival ISPs in Korea. But SK Telecom and its subsidiary SK Broadband held out and appeared to gain support for their position in the Korean parliament. “This strategic partnership with Netflix originates from the philosophy of SK Telecom and SK Broadband, where customer value is prioritized, and comes as part of our efforts to provide customers with an enhanced media service environment,” said SK Telecom’s Choi Hwanseok, VP of corporate strategy. “The partnership with SK Telecom, a leader in Korea’s telecommunication and innovative technology industries, holds special significance as it enables Netflix to enhance entertainment experiences for a broader Korean audience,” said Tony Zameczkowski, Netflix VP of APAC partnerships. “By teaming up with Netflix, SK Telecom and SK Broadband aim to help customers enjoy Netflix shows and films on mobile devices and IPTV (B tv) with easier access and payment options.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Cobweb,” the Kim Jee-woon-directed satire that debuted at Cannes this year, has been cleared for theatrical release in its native Korea later this month. On Monday it saw off an injunction that sought to derail its hometown debut. The film is a tongue in cheek tribute to the Korean movies of the 1970s and plays partly as a film within a film, jumping from color to black and white as it does so. It stars Song Kang-ho (“Parasite,” “Broker”) as director Kim, who needs just two more days of reshoots to craft a new ending to his latest film (also called “Cobweb”) so that it will no longer be the trashy potboiler everyone thought he was making.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Byun hee-bong, a veteran South Korean actor who appeared in several films by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho, has died age 81. Byun died on Monday after complications related to a return of the pancreatic cancer that had previously occurred and been treated, according to the semi-official Yonhap News agency. The precise circumstances of his demise were not disclosed. He was born in Jangseon, South Jeolla Province, and started work at an unspecified time in live theater before becoming a voice performer for state TV network MBC in 1966. His TV work in the 1980s and 1990s included series including: 1981’s ”The First Republic”; 1985’s “The Joseon Dynasty 500 Years: Seouljungmae”; and 1999’s “The Legendary Doctor Hur Jun.” His first reliably recorded feature film work was in Bong’s breakout 2000 film “Barking Dogs Never Bite.” Byun appeared in significant roles in three other films by Bong: the cultish “Memories of Murder,” in 2003; 2006 Cannes presentation and box office hit “The Host”; and “Okja,” the creature feature which marked Netflix’s film production debut in Korea and which also appeared Cannes. Byun picked up half a dozen best supporting actor nominations in Korea and regionally in Asia for his role as Hie-bong in “The Host,” converting two of those into wins, at the Asia Pacific Film Festival and Korea’s Blue Dragon Awards.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ‘Expendables 4’ narrowly took top place at the mainland China box office on a quiet weekend preceding the National Day holiday season at the end of the month. “A Haunting in Venice” opened outside the top five. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “Expendables 4” earning $10.9 million (RMB78.6 million) over its debut weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two Hollywood new releases, “A Haunting in Venice” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem” failed to make much of an impression on the South Korean box office in their opening weekend. Instead, local fantasy drama “Sleep” headed the chart for a second time. “Sleep” earned $2.38 million in its second weekend, a creditably modest 20% weekend-on-weekend decline, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean crime-action webtoon “Knuckle Girl” is being adapted as an original film production for Amazon’s Prime Video. It is structured as a Korea-Japan co-venture. The narrative revolves around a promising woman boxer, Ran, who takes on school bullies and participates in illegal bouts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oscar-winning Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung (“Minari,” “Pachinko”) will headline the Actors’ House section of the upcoming Busan International Film Festival, it was announced on Thursday. Introduced in 2021, Actors’ House is a special series that connects audiences and film enthusiasts with iconic actors from the current generation through its in-depth discussions. “There’s much anticipation to hear her words of wisdom, as she’s known for her insightful observations,” said the festival. Others this year include: Han Hyo-joo, Song Joong-ki and Korean-American actor and author John Cho.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Blue Ant Media, the Canadian-owned group with operations spanning TV production, distribution and channels management, is creating a new Asia-Pacific base in Sydney, Australia. It has hired Jon Penn as its Asia-Pacific MD and Jason Soh as VP of distribution, based in Singapore.Penn is a veteran with ten years in Asia with BBC Studios and 11 years of experience at Fremantle. Latterly, he has been a partner at ACT Media Ventures and advised Blue Ant on its expansion in Australia. “The appointments signal the expansion of Blue Ant Media’s channel and program distribution business in Asia Pacific, combining the company’s channel distribution and content sales in the region into one unit.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dust to Dust,” a low-key crime thriller, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, despite only being released on Saturday. The film, directed by Jonathan Li, recounts how 21 years after a major armed robbery, a video of the crime resurfaces and causes the police to reopen their investigation. It had its world premiere in June, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival. With Da Peng, a former talk show host, required to age significantly for the lead role, the film earned $22.2 million (RMB160 million) in just two days, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Strong summer season performances by movies across the world have sped up the movie industry’s global recovery. And for the second time this year, analysis firm Gower Street Analytics has revised its forecast for the 2023 cinema year upwards. The London-based firm is now forecasting that the full-year global gross box office will weigh in at $34.5 billion, a $2.5 billion increase on its April forecast. The upgrade reflects a strong July-August period globally, but with the majority of the increase due to the summer movie season boom in China. If the new projection holds good, it would see global box office finish 33% ahead of 2022 (35% at current exchange rates). It would also come in just 12% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years, 2017-2019, the firm said. The forecast is based on the currently known release calendar for the remaining four months of the year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “No More Bets,” the smash hit Chinese crime thriller that has earned more than half a billion dollars in its home market, is hurriedly adding new territories to release. It will release in the U.K. and Ireland from Friday through distributor Trinity Cine Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kim Jee-woon’s black comedy “Cobweb,” which debuted this year at Cannes, is set for a U.S. theatrical release in early 2024.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief An investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by a former director of the Busan International Film Festival has not reached a conclusion, several months after it began, the festival said on Tuesday. The festival has said that it is urging former director Huh Moonyoung to cooperate with an external investigator. The festival held its annual lineup presentation on Tuesday in an online format, announcing the bulk of its film selections, juries, anticipated guests, honorary prize-winners and technical arrangements such as screening venues and ticketing. As part of the presentation, current management again apologized for several months of turmoil, which it admitted had scared off sponsors and caused its operating budget to shrink. The turmoil began in May when the festival appointed Cho Jongkook, a close friend of chairman Lee Yong-kwan, to a power-sharing position with festival director Huh Moonyoung. That move was opposed by certain Korean industry guilds, which threatened to boycott the festival in support of Huh.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Abacus Media Rights has pre-sold the feature documentary “The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee,” to Sky Arts, SBS Television Australia; to NonStop Entertainment for Scandinavia, Iceland and the Baltics and to Movistar for Spain. Lee is known as the Dracula character and for transitioning from 1960s Hammer horror films to a distinguished acting career that encompassed James Bond films, the “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” franchises. Less well-known are his aristocratic Italian roots, a close family connection to James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, Lee’s wartime experiences in the British and Finnish military, post-war Nazi-hunting adventures and a side career as a heavy metal rock singer. As an actor, Lee achieved a Guinness world record for the highest number of screen appearances. Produced in association with the British Film Institute and Trigger Films by Canal Cat Films, “Life and Deaths” is an innovative documentary which uses fresh interviews, archive material and multiple forms of traditional and cutting-edge animation, including marionation, to bring one of the world’s leading actors back to life on screen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.