The film 'Bogotá: The Land of Last Chances' (hereafter 'Bogotá'), starring Song Joong-ki, has failed at the box office but is doing well on Netflix.
According to Plus M Entertainment, the distributor, 'Bogotá', directed by Kim Sung-jae, recorded 13 million views (the total viewing time divided by the running time) from March 3 to 9, ranking first in the non-English film category on Netflix. It also ranked second in the combined rankings of English and non-English films.
The film topped the charts in 10 countries, including Korea and Colombia, where the story is set. It achieved the remarkable feat of entering the top 10 in a total of 73 countries.
'Bogotá' is a crime film that depicts the story of a boy named Guk-hee (played by Song Joong-ki) who heads to Bogotá, Colombia, shortly after the 1997 International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis, and gets entangled with influential figures in the local Korean community, such as Su-young (Lee Hee-joon) and Sergeant Park (Kwon Hae-hyo).
It is reported that the break-even point for 'Bogotá' is 3 million viewers, but the final cumulative audience number for 'Bogotá' is only 420,000, falling far short of the break-even point. Regarding the film's poor performance, Song Joong-ki said, "These days, Korean films are very difficult. Honestly, I am just grateful that the film is even being shown in theaters. We promoted it more diligently than ever," and he wiped away tears.
