‘Assassin(s)’ Ranks Second With 70,000 Admissions… Cumulative Total Reaches 1.76 Million ‘Reawaken Man: The Red’ Opens in the 40,000s… Sluggish Start in Fourth Place
The No. 1 spot at the box office has finally gone to a Japanese animated film. ‘Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island’ upended the box-office race in one stroke after ‘Assassin(s)’ and ‘Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub’ had been trading places at the top.
According to the Korean Film Council’s integrated cinema ticketing network on the 1st, ‘Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island’ drew 122,293 admissions on the 30th of last month, its opening day, and started at No. 1 at the box office. Its cumulative admissions totaled 153,018.
That was a sizable gap, considering that ‘Assassin(s),’ in second place, drew 71,942 admissions for the day, while ‘Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub,’ in third, drew 57,855.
The Korean films that had fiercely battled it out during the Chuseok holiday season each slipped one spot after the holiday ended. ‘Assassin(s)’ recorded 1,766,946 cumulative admissions, while ‘Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub’ reached 1,015,908. ‘Tazza 4’ had held the top spot through the previous day and staged an upset, but fell to third place with the arrival of the new animated film.
Chiikawa’s momentum is particularly overwhelming in advance bookings. As of 7:58 a.m. that day, it led the real-time advance-booking rankings with a 39.0% booking rate and 211,834 advance-booking viewers. ‘Assassin(s)’ ranked second with 13.8% and 75,013 viewers, while ‘Odyssey’ was third with 10.5% and 56,961 viewers.
‘Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub’ ranked fourth with 9.5% and 51,737 viewers, while ‘Reawaken Man: The Red’ ranked fifth with 7.8% and 42,222 viewers. From its first day of release, Chiikawa left its competitors far behind not only in admissions but also in advance bookings.
The webtoon-based ‘Reawaken Man: The Red’ also climbed sharply upon release. It rose 12 spots from 16th place the previous day to fourth, drawing 42,872 admissions in a single day. Its cumulative admissions stood at around 50,000.
Meanwhile, ‘Odyssey,’ which has enjoyed a sustained run, continued to show staying power by holding third place with a real-time advance-booking rate of 10.5%.
With the Chuseok box-office battle over, the cinema landscape is being rapidly reshaped. Chiikawa ended the race for the top spot among Korean films in a single day, and attention is now focused on how much of its overwhelming advance sales will translate into actual admissions.
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
