The final winner of the winter box office last year is expected to be ‘Firefighter’. Song Joong-ki faced a box office failure early on with ‘Bogotá’, and ‘Harbin’ also recorded daily audience numbers of 60,000 to 70,000 over the weekend, making it virtually impossible to break even.
According to the statistics from the Korean Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 20th, ‘Harbin’ (directed by Woo Min-ho) attracted 66,265 viewers the previous day, bringing its cumulative audience to 4,495,590. On Friday, it drew about 36,000 viewers, and on Saturday, about 79,000. It is currently ranked 5th in ticket sales, with approximately 10,000 pre-sales.
The film that launched solo at the end of last year aimed for long-term success until this year's Lunar New Year holiday, but that has become difficult. CJ ENM announced a break-even point of about 6.5 million before its release, but as the box office performance plummeted, it unusually adjusted the break-even point downwards within a month of release by applying overseas sales and additional rights contracts. Nevertheless, the once declining box office performance has not recovered, and it is expected to exit as new films are released.
In second place is ‘Firefighter’ (directed by Kwak Kyung-taek), which has already surpassed its break-even point (2.5 million). On the same day, it attracted 22,386 viewers, bringing its cumulative audience to 3,806,147. Released in early December last year, the film has already achieved its goal and is comfortably enjoying long-term success despite various risks.
In third place is ‘Pororo: The Movie - Adventure Under the Sea’, which attracted 13,592 viewers, bringing its cumulative audience to 322,102. Fourth place is taken by ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’, and fifth place is held by ‘Substance’.
Currently, the real-time ticket sales rate shows Song Hye-kyo’s ‘Black Nuns’ at an overwhelming 37.7% in first place. In second place is ‘Hitman 2’, and in third place is ‘Secret That Cannot Be Told’. Fourth place is ‘IU Concert: The Winning’.
