Strong Debut for ‘Hansan’ Propels Korea Box Office to Best Month of the Year

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefA powerful debut for “Hansan: Rising Dragon,” a locally-made historical action film, lifted the South Korean box office to its second highest weekend of the year and helped July to be the best month of 2022.The film is a prequel to “Roaring Currents” a tale of an heroic 14th century naval admiral that amassed some 17 million admissions in 2014 and is currently the most-watched Korean film of all time.Data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), showed that “Hansan” earned $13.4 million from 1.63 million ticket sales between Friday and Sunday, for a market share of 60%.

Over its first five days in theaters, the film amassed $17.9 million from 2.27 million spectators. That makes it only the third Korean film so far this year to pass the 2 million ticket sales mark, behind “The Roundup” which has now reached 12.7 million spectators and $100.4 million in revenues and “The Witch: Part 2.

The Other One,” which scored $22.4 million from 2.80 million ticket sales. “Hansan” retains the same director Kim Han-min as “Roaring Currents” and has similarly stirred up nationalistic elements.

It depicts a famous battle against Japanese invaders in 1592. And it has won critical praise for story-telling and a massive 51 minutes of battle scenes.Its fortunes are in contrast with “Alienoid,” which topped the box office a week earlier, but which slipped by 70% and fell to fourth place.