Neon’s re-release of Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 Oldboy grossed an estimated $495k on 250 screens this weekend for a total cume of $880k over five days. It’s set to cross the $1 million in its first week back – surpassing a cumulative North American gross of $707k with original distributor Metro Tartan Film. The classic revenge thriller came out in 2003 and was released Stateside in 2005. It was the first South Korean film to win the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2004 and took in $15 million worldwide.
It’s rare for re-releases to top $1 million at the domestic box office. Others that have include Studio Ghibli fare and James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic.
The restored and remastered version of Oldboy opened last Wednesday at $235k, landing in the top ten alongside summer tentpole including Barbie and Oppenheimer.
Top-performing cities include San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles at Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. An intro by the director and a concluding Q&A (by Nicolas Winding Refn) bookend the re-release.
Oldboy follows Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), who after being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, is released. He must find find his captor, and uncover the reason for his imprisonment, in five days. The film, with a 94% audience sore on Rotten Tomatoes, is the second installment of Park’s The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and followed by Lady Vengeance (2005).
Breakdown: Wed. – $235k; Thurs. – $150k; Fri. – $170k; Sat. – $180k; Sun. – $145k.
Other specialty openings: MGM’s release of Cory Finley’s 2023 Sundance World Premiere Landscape with Invisible Hand grossed $93k at 304 theaters. The film was produced in partnership with Plan B and Annapurna and played strongest on the coasts.
More to come…