"Ninja" scores biggest opening for Rain

Rain has scored his biggest opening with Hollywood action movie "Ninja Assassin" which has been faring well on both the Korean and U.S. box office, according to the film's producer on Monday.

"Ninja", which opened worldwide on November 26, attracted 535,600 viewers in Korea on its opening weekend and ranked second overall on Korean box office, Warner Brothers Korea said.

The ninja pic marks the biggest first week results for a movie starring Rain, whose two previous films "I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay" and "Speed Racer" brought in 470,000 and 420,000 viewers, respectively.

In the U.S., the film earned over 13.1 million dollars over the weekend and about 21 million dollars during the first week. It placed sixth on U.S. box office but raked in more dollars per screen compared to films such as "2012", Old Dogs" and "A Christmas Carol" which overall ranked above "Ninja".

Critics are saying that the figures for both markets are impressive for a film with a no-teenagers-allowed R-rating. In the U.S., "Ninja" is showing at only 2,503 screens versus between 3,000 to 4,000 for the film's competitors.

"Ninja" stars Asian superstar Rain in the lead role of Raizo, an assassin who plots revenge against his former crime organization. The movie was helmed by James McTeigue of "V for Vendetta" and produced by Joel Silver and the famous Wachowski Brothers of the "Matrix" trilogy.

Reporter : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr