▲ This photo, provided by distributor NEW, shows a scene from 'The First Slam Dunk.' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) -- “The First Slam Dunk,” a Japanese sports animated film based on the legendary Japanese manga series “Slam Dunk,” has exceeded 2 million admissions in South Korea as of Wednesday.

Since the film hit the domestic box office immediately after the New Year holidays on Jan. 4, this Toei Animation feature has performed consistently ever since and gathered a total of 2,011,000 moviegoers in South Korea.

The original comic, which was published in Japan’s “Weekly Shonen Jump” magazine and sold more than 170 million copies worldwide, has been one of the best-selling manga series in Korean history; the masterpiece has been the all-time favorite Japanese anime for many Koreans, to the point that it brought upon a “basketball boom” in the 1990s.

The legend is continuing with its film version, which has been drawing attention since its production with Takehiko Inoue, the cartoonist of “Slam Dunk,” writing and directing the film.

The film has been topping the box office in South Korea for five days since Jan. 27 by stimulating the nostalgia of those in their 30s and 40s who remember reading the manga series as teens.

According to the admissions data released by CGV, only 18.7% of this film’s audiences were in their 20s; meanwhile, 38.6% were in their 30s, 31.8% in their 40s, and more than 70% were in their 30s and 40s. The gender distribution was fairly even, with 47.5% female audiences and 52.5% male audiences.

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Ha eun Lee)

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