Japan's Chiikawa: The Secret of the Mermaid Island topped Korea's daily box office on Friday with 57,424 admissions, passing domestic hit The Assassin(s) for the single-day crown as families bought tickets ahead of the autumn holiday weekend.
Korean Film Council data showed Chiikawa earning 597.7 million won from 953 screens, while Assassin(s) took 296.9 million won from 30,042 viewers. TAZZA: The Song of Beelzebub remained third with 21,654 admissions.
October leaderboard context
Monthly rankings through mid-October still place Assassin(s) first on cumulative October admissions at about 1.37 million, but Chiikawa has narrowed the gap to roughly 1.35 million thanks to strong family turnout. The two films together account for more than half of October revenue share, leaving mid-budget Korean titles fighting for screens.
New releases added noise to the chart. Whalefall, a domestic horror entry that opened Oct. 14, drew 9,906 viewers on Friday, while Street Fighter and Look Back rounded out the top ten. Exhibitors programmed them on roughly 600 screens each, typical for genre films seeking quick two-week runs before streaming deals activate.
Exhibition economics
High screen counts for Chiikawa reflect distributor commitments to anime features, which have become reliable youth anchors since pandemic-era attendance recovered. Assassin(s) maintains wider depth in Seoul megaplexes, but provincial chains swapped shows toward Chiikawa matinees when school breaks began.
Ticket inflation remains a hidden story: average prices rose with premium formats, so revenue shares can diverge from raw admission counts. Still, daily admissions are the pulse exhibitors watch when deciding Saturday morning allocations.
Weekend outlook
With baseball playoffs in Gwangju and mild weather forecast for much of the country, cinemas expect split audiences between sports bars and family animations. If Chiikawa holds above 50,000 daily viewers through Sunday, it could overtake Assassin(s) on monthly revenue by Monday's studio reports.
For distributors, the lesson is familiar: imported family anime is no longer a niche play in Korea. Domestic auteur films can top the month, but holiday weekends belong to characters children already know from streaming clips.
Merchandising tie-ins—plush toys and convenience-store collabs—helped Chiikawa sustain midweek momentum even when Assassin(s) dominated evening shows. Cinema analysts said daytime occupancy above 40 percent is the threshold that keeps anime on premium screens past week two.
Whalefall's studio is betting on word-of-mouth among horror fans who follow festival buzz, a strategy that worked for earlier mid-budget chillers before streaming windows shrank. Social clips trended Friday night, but translation-dependent humor limits overseas viral reach.
Exhibitors CGV and Lotte Cinema both run loyalty points promotions this month, effectively discounting tickets without cutting studio shares. That padding could inflate admissions through October even if underlying demand softens.