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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-06-12 15:21:46
SEOUL, June 12 (Yonhap) -- “The Roundup,” reaching the 10 million audience mark as a Korean movie for the first time in three years, launched a signal in film industry which has been stagnated during the COVID-19 crisis.
The box office hit of “The Roundup” was possible due to a combination of Don Lee’s cool action, humor codes, casting of Son Seok-ku who recently rises to stardom, and stagnation of contenders.
◇ Synergy effect of Don Lee and Son Seok-ku
First of all, the characteristic of genre as an action and an entertainment grabbed the attention of the audience. Don Lee’s cool action, who easily knocks down the villain with his striking punch, and a bit of humor appearing throughout the movie suit well for the audience to relieve their stress they have gotten during the COVID-19 crisis.
Yoon Seong-eun, a film critic, explained, “’The Roundup’ is an entertaining movie that well suits to Korean’s emotion,” evaluating, “Compared to the previous works, it emphasized the chemistry of detectives and often included ad lib-like lines to add comic elements.”
“The Roundup” differentiates from other crime action movies, through Don Lee itself, who also has a nickname of “Mavely (combining ‘Ma,’ his last name for Korean stage name, and ‘lovely’).
The character Ma Seok-do, a detective who Don Lee played, boasts off his large muscle and realizes didactic morality. While he is making a striking punch to the villain, he shows clumsiness such as wrongly calling Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) as USB.
The popularity of Son Seok-ku, who played the character Kang Hae-sang, the cruel criminal sweeping around Vietnam and Korea, also played a significant role in attracting the audience. Son rose to the stardom through JTBC’s drama “My Liberation Notes,” which started broadcasting right before the release of “The Roundup,” attracting a lot of female fans to theaters.
According to the analysis done by CGV, among audiences who reserved movie tickets of “The Roundup,” it turned out that the percentage of female audience was 53.8%, which is higher than that of male audience calculated as 46.2%.
A mass culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun analyzed that “Since ‘The Roundup’ is a movie which has Don Lee, a remarkable actor, audiences already have expectations to the movie, and Son Seok-ku who recently rose to the stardom added synergy to the popularity of the movie.”
◇ Age rating of 15 plus to increase audiences in family unit
The age rating, available for those aged over 15, which is alleviated compared to the previous work, also contributed to the increase of the number of audiences. The previous work which teenagers were not able to watch at all, recorded 6.68 million audiences.
In addition, there were no contenders to compete with “The Roundup.”
“The Roundup” was released on the 18 of last month, when the Marvel hero movie “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” showed a downturn after surpassing 5 million audiences.
“Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Brokers” were respectively released at the second and fourth week of the release of “The Roundup,” but they fell short of “The Roundup.”
Also, the fact that the number of audiences who visit theaters increased since the social distancing has been lifted and it became possible to eat food in the theater, significantly contributed to the success of the movie.
◇ “The Roundup” to open the era of Korean movie series
“The Roundup” is an unusual case, the sequel achieving the better result than the previous film in Korean movie industry, where series production itself is rare. Three series of “Detective K” and two series of “The Accidental Detective” were produced, but they did not succeed as “The Roundup.”
“The Roundup,” which was originally planned as an 8 series, will be able to continue its series stably, with the first episode attracting 6.88 million audiences and the second episode attracting 10 million audiences.
“The Roundup,” which invested a total of 13 billion won of production costs, has raised its sales of 11.5 billion won by the 10th, about eight times the investment in ticket sales alone.
The production is already preparing to film the third episode, deciding Incheon as a dramatic backdrop, in which appears the Japanese Yakuza.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Kim Jimin.)
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