한반도 (Hanbando) Ends Hollywood’s Box Office Domination?

Posted by X at 8:19pm.

Posted in Box Office News, Thriller, Drama, Action, Asia.

Kang Woo-Suk strikes again… or at least that’s how things are looking like at the moment.

If you’ve been checking our Chungmuro Daily, we reported how negatively the critics have received 한반도 (Hanbando), the latest work from the director of 실미도 (Silmido) and the 공공의 적 (Public Enemy) series. The Film2.0 Critics Poll even awarded a stunning NINE Thumbs Down out of nine, something rarely happening even for the worst films, to the 11 Billion blockbuster.

But reaction of the critics and that of the public is always a different thing, as the 11 Million tickets sold by Silmido showed. The film, which is releasing today on 460 screens nationwide, is doing extremely well with online preorder sales. Maxmovie records a 65% for Hanbando against Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest‘s 31%. Other preorder sites have the flm at even higher shares, with Interpark and Ticketlink (73%) and Movie OK (81%) showing the film’s popularity, especially with viewers aged 10 to 20, which is kind of surprising considering the film’s subject.

Unless something big happens, the film should be able to end at the top of next weekend’s box office, which would be the first Korean film to do so in 11 weeks. A similar thing happened in early 2005, when Kang’s 공공의 적 2 (Another Public Enemy) broke a ten week long run at the top by Hollywood, landing in first place. Later this week we’ll translate an interview with the director by the great Kim Young-Jin of Film2.0. [Daum News]

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Reader Comments

Jack 07/14/2006 @ 10:02pm

Hey, Yes it did! Hanbando just broke the domestic opening record. it’s drew 230,538 viewers in opening day, finishing third in terms of number of viewers drawn on the first day among the blockbusters that opened this summer, and first among domestic films
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