'Beauty and the Beast' wins fourth weekend box office

By Shim Sun-ah

SEOUL, April 10 (Yonhap) -- Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" retained its South Korean weekend box-office crown for the fourth consecutive time, crossing 4.6 million in the number of tickets sold, data showed Monday.

According to the Korean Film Council, the smash hit drew 347,690 moviegoers in its fourth weekend of release from April 7-9.

The live-action version of the animated classic stars Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.

The count brought the film's cumulative total to 4.62 million as of Sunday, the highest ever record for all films that have opened in March in South Korea.

The runner-up was the Korean crime thriller "The Prison" with 249,674 in attendance.

Starring Kim Rae-won and Han Suk-kyu, the film tells the story of prisoners who commit crimes in the outside world and return to their cells every night. It is the directorial debut of the veteran screenwriter Na Hyun of "Mokpo, Gangster's Paradise" (2004), "May 18" (2007), "Forever The Moment" (2008) and "South Bound" (2013).

"Life," the American sci-fi disaster thriller released Wednesday, debuted in third place with 234,674 views. The Korean romance film "Oneday," also a newcomer, was at No. 4 with 109,605 views, followed by "Ghost in the Shell," the Scarlett Johansson-starring adaptation of the popular Japanese manga, with 68,722.

sshim@yna.co.kr
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