SEOUL: wo days ahead of its opening, “Hope” is already the only story at the local box office.
As of Monday morning, Na Hong-jin’s Cannes-premiered alien epic accounted for 62.1 percent of all advance tickets sold nationwide, racking up nearly 390,000 bookings, according to the Korean Film Council’s tracking service.
The film shot to No. 1 faster than any release this year and hasn’t budged since; its share now runs nearly four times that of the runner-up, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which opens July 29.
It also comes with the name of a director who has yet to disappoint. Na has directed only three features in nearly two decades (“The Chaser,” “The Yellow Sea” and “The Wailing”), all of which carried his brand of violent, genre-bending thrills to audiences well beyond Korea.
That solid track record kept anticipation high for “Hope,” his first film in the 10 years since, even as the wait stretched longer than planned. Cameras wrapped in March 2024 with a 2025 release in the cards, but the film languished in post-production for another year before premiering in competition at Cannes in May.
Now comes the harder part of turning all that anticipation into a hit, with a lot more riding on the outcome than just box-office bragging rights.
For the company releasing it, the movie is a matter of survival. Last month, distributor Plus M Entertainment and its sister multiplex chain Megabox, along with other units of parent JoongAng Group, filed for bankruptcy protection.
The filing rattled the wider business, leaving distributors and franchise theater owners unsure whether they would be paid. A strong run for “Hope” would give PlusM some breathing room as it works through restructuring.
Some help is coming from the government. The culture ministry began handing out 2.05 million movie ticket coupons on July 8, each worth 6,000 won ($3.90) off, in its second such giveaway this year.
With “Hope” arriving a week into the new batch, it is widely expected to be the biggest beneficiary this time. The first round of coupons released in May lifted box office revenue 47.9 percent in the week that followed.
It also helps that competition is unusually thin for the peak season. No Korean film of comparable scale opens all summer, and “Hope” shares the date with nothing except “Minions & Monsters,” which opens the same day.
The summer’s other heavyweight, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” doesn’t land for another two weeks, giving “Hope” a head start at the height of the moviegoing year.
Early word on the film has been encouraging as well. Reviews from last week’s press screenings in Seoul were largely positive, much as they were at Cannes, where many singled out the film’s action set pieces as its greatest strength.
The creature effects, which many at the festival found spotty, have reportedly been reworked in a further round of post-production ahead of the local release.
The market “Hope” opens into is also in better shape than it has been in years, and eyes are on whether it can keep the momentum going.
Box office revenue in the first quarter climbed to 73.2 percent of its pre-pandemic average, the best showing since 2020, according to Korean Film Council data.
Local films supplied much of the lift, with first-half revenue up 81.7 percent from a year earlier. The period megahit “The King’s Warden” led the way, selling 16.9 million tickets.- Korean Herald/ANN
