Park Gwang-Hyun's '웰컴 투 동막골' ('Welcome To Dongmakgol') has officially become part of Korean Cinema history, beating the previous box office record of '말아톤' ('Marathon'), becoming the top grossing film of the year. Not only that, the film is also one of the selected few to enter the prestigious '5 Million' club, having sold 5,500,000 tickets so far. What's impressive is that the film keeps gaining momentum, instead of slowing down. Weekend preorder sales ranged from mid 50% to even whopping 70% figures. And they say good word of mouth isn't as important as advertising.
The next target seems to be the 7 Million tickets, feat that only 3 other films in history have been able to reach. I'm obviously talking about Kwak Kyung-Taek's '친구' ('Friend') with 8,180,000, Kang Je-Gyu's '태극기 휘날리며' ('Taegukgi') with 11,740,000 and Kang Woo-Suk's '실미도' ('Silmido') with 11,080,000.
Jang Jin's '박수칠 때 떠나라' ('The Big Scene') did well, too, hitting the all important 2 Million tickets sold mark. As for the other Korean films on release, a good response outside Seoul helped Lee Beom-Soo's comedy 'Short Time' ('이대로, 죽을 순 없다') reach 649,000 tickets sold nationwide. Park Chan-Wook's '친절한 금자씨' ('Sympathy For Lady Vengeance') is still selling some tickets, with a total of 3,620,000.
1 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 34.2% - 5,508,748
2 박수칠 때 떠나라 (The Big Scene) - 17.3% - 2,102,600
3 Bewitched - 9.9% - 151,000
4 In Good Company - 7.6% - 116,000
5 이대로, 죽을 순 없다 (Short Time) - 6.9% - 649,000
6 After Sunset - 6.4% - N/A
7 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) - 3.3% - 3,620,000
8 The Skeleton Key - 2.9% - N/A
9 ต้มยำกุ้ง (Tom Yum Goong) - 2.7% - 220,000
10 The Island - 2.6% - 3,680,000
