'X-Men: Apocalypse' takes over S. Korean box office

SEOUL, May 30 (Yonhap) -- "X-Men: Apocalypse" easily topped the weekend box office in South Korea with more than 1 million viewers, blocking the local film "The Wailing" from holding onto the No. 1 position for the third straight week, data showed Monday. The X-Men franchise landed at No. 1 on the chart, drawing 1,166,756 moviegoers over the May 27-29 weekend, according to the computerized box-office tally from the Korean Film Council. The sixth installment in the superhero action series sees ancient Egyptian deity Apocalypse reawaken to wreak havoc in the modern world. Oscar Isaac stars as Apocalypse, along with prequel series regulars Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and Rose Byrne. The film has been on top of the daily box-office chart since its debut on Wednesday. "The Wailing" by director Na Hong-jin was relegated to No. 2 but remained strong on the chart, adding 633,057 viewers to its domestic total of about 5.7 million. Starring Kwak Do-won, Chun Woo-hee and Hwang Jung-min, "The Wailing," also known as "Goksung" and "The Strangers," features a tranquil rural village embroiled in mysterious serial murders after the arrival of a stranger. The flick was screened at the Out of Competition section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival earlier this month, receiving favorable reviews from both critics and audiences. "The Angry Birds Movie," an animation adapted from the mobile game, was a distant third, amassing 163,240 viewers. It was followed by "Sing Street," an Irish-British-American musical comedy-drama film about a boy who starts a band to impress a girl (94,714) and "Canola," a Korean drama film about a missing girl and her grandmother who reunite after 10 years of separation (80,170). sshim@yna.co.kr (END)