Alien epic's first week outgrossed entire North American runs of most Korean titles
Na Hong-jin's part go-for-broke blockbuster, part screwball farce alien epic "Hope" pulled in nearly $5 million in its first week at North American theaters, the film's Korean distributor Plus M Entertainment said Tuesday, in what amounts to a respectable start for a Korean-language release on a limited run in the region.
The 156-minute creature feature debuted Sept. 9 to a $1.1 million opening day and went on to collect another $3.3 million over the weekend, cracking the box office top 10 along the way. Its total stood at $4.92 million as of Sunday, according to box office tracker Box Office Mojo.
"Hope" is playing in 1,560 theaters across the US and Canada, the widest release for a Korean film there since Bong Joon-ho's Oscar winner "Parasite" in 2019. Neon, the indie distributor behind the US releases of "Parasite" and last year's "No Other Choice," is handling the rollout.
Though not massive by Hollywood standards, the numbers for "Hope" stack up well against the track record of other Korean films in the region, which typically play to a limited art house circuit and tend to finish in the low single-digit millions.
Its first week figures alone put it ahead of the likes of Bong's "The Host" ($2.2 million North American gross), "Snowpiercer" ($4.6 million) and Park Chan-wook's "Decision to Leave" ($2.2 million). "Parasite" remains an outlier at $53.4 million, which it racked up in a monthslong run that got a second wind after it won four Oscars at the 2020 Academy Awards, including best picture.
Sitting atop the market's all-time chart for Korean films is director Jang Seong-ho's faith-based animation "The King of Kings," which raked in $60.3 million last year.
Reviews for "Hope" have been solid, if not exactly over the moon. The film holds a 79 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, where it is certified fresh, and a "generally favorable" score of 66 on Metacritic.
Na's first film since the widely acclaimed supernatural thriller "The Wailing" (2016), "Hope" premiered in competition at Cannes in May and opened in Korea on July 15.
Hwang Jung-min ("Veteran," "12.12: The Day") stars as a small-town police chief facing off against a mysterious creature in a port town. Zo In-sung ("Escape from Mogadishu") plays his hunter cousin and Jung Ho-yeon ("Squid Game") is a rookie cop. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander portray aliens through motion capture.
At home, "Hope" sold 4.57 million tickets for an approximate gross of $36 million; it held first place at the local box office for two weekends straight until "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" took over. The numbers are widely seen as falling short of expectations for what is reportedly the most expensive Korean film ever made, on a budget of over $50 million.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
