Korean drama Firefighters rose to the top of the local box office this weekend, despite a swell of political controversy linked to the director’s
Korean drama Firefighters rose to the top of the local box office this weekend, despite a swell of political controversy linked to the director’s brother.
The film opened on December 4 and ranked second after its first weekend but has climbed to the top on its second outing, taking $4.38m from just over 657,000 admissions and a 41.9% market share from Friday to Sunday (December 13-15). The 17% uptick in sales from its opening weekend has brought its cume to $11.7m, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service.
Awareness of the film has risen as the brother of director Kwak Kyung-taek is Kwak Gyu-taek, a member of South Korea’s People Power Party (PPP), who failed to attend a recent parliamentary vote to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The move led to criticism of the film by association – the latest in a long-running string of challenges faced by the feature, whose release was initially delayed by the pandemic before being pushed again in the wake of a drunk-driving scandal involving lead actor Kwak Do-won.
Its sales have also been bolstered by the film’s pledge to donate KW119 (approximately $0.08) per ticket to the National Fire Hospital, which is set to open in Korea next year.
Starring Ju-won, Kwak Do-won of The Wailing, and Yoo Jae-myung from Harbin, the film honours the heroic efforts of first responders during the 2001 Hongje-dong arson fire, and six people who died in the incident.
Moana 2, which led last weekend, secured second place with $2.6m. Now in its third weekend, the film is closing on $18m, surpassing its 2016 prequel and becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 2024 in South Korea to date.
Wicked took third place with $934,000, maintaining the position for a third consecutive week. Since its November 20 release, the film has earned a cume of $11.8m.
Korean comedy About Family debuted in fourth with $653,000, marking the return of director Wooseok Yang, best known for his Steel Rain series and The Attorney. The cast is led by Kim Yoon-seok of Mogadishu and Netflix’s The Frog, who plays the owner of a dumpling restaurant mourning the grandchildren he’ll never have as his son decides to become a monk. The comedy unfolds when two children appear, claiming the monk is their father.
Local sports drama One Win ranked fifth with $255,000, a 60% drop from its opening weekend. Parasite star Song Kang-ho plays the loser coach of an underdog women’s volleyball team.
In sixth place, Hidden Face, a mystery-thriller now in its third weekend, earned $241,000. Just behind with $237,000 was The Substance, the satirical horror that played in Competition at Cannes, where it won best screenplay for writer/director Coralie Fargeat.
An IMAX re-release for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar earned $190,000. The film was released as part of an “IMAX Masterpiece” collection, which also included Dune and Dunkirk.
First Lady, a timely documentary about Kim Gun-hee, the wife of the recently suspended President Yoon, secured $183,000 in its restricted screenings. Covering controversies of corruption, forgery, and stock manipulation surrounding South Korea’s first lady, the film sold out at nearly 40 theatres, with plans to expand its screenings next week.
Rounding out the top ten was the re-release of 2021’s Jujutsu Kaise 0 with $125,000.
Looking to next week, Harbin leads pre-sales with 33.1% of tickets sold ahead of its release on December 24.
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