‘Pandora,’ ‘La La Land’ dominate weekend box office in S. Korea

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) — South Korean nuclear disaster film “Pandora” and Hollywood musical movie “La La Land” swept the domestic box office over the weekend, data showed Monday.

According to the real-time box office tally from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), “Pandora” topped ticket sales by attracting about 1.1 million viewers during its debut weekend.

The movie tells the story of ordinary people risking their lives to save their town and loved ones from a series of unprecedented natural disasters, including a strong earthquake and an explosion at a nuclear power plant. It was helmed by filmmaker Park Jung-woo, best known for his science fiction horror “Deranged.”

The film released Wednesday has since drawn an audience of 1.4 million.

A still cut from Korean disaster film “Pandora”

“La La Land,” which was released on the same day, rose to second place with 427,150 in attendance.

The Korean comedy film “My Annoying Brother” was pushed down to No. 3 after topping the chart the previous weekend. It added 264,330 to its tally of 2.68 million.

Coming in the fourth and fifth were the American animation film “Storks” (147,187) and Warner Bros.’s fantasy adventure film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (146,180).

“Storks,” which premiered on Wednesday, follows a group of birds who once delivered newborns but have instead been recommissioned to haul packages for an e-commerce giant.

A still cut from American movie musical “La La Land”