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| ▲This photo is by Yonhap News agency. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by each companies, show "Decision to Leave" and "Hansan." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by each companies, show "Honest Candidate 2" and "Come Back Home." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) |
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Yonhap) -- It has become common for several films starring same actor to be in theater at the same time as they have delayed release date due to COVID-19.
Actor Sol Kyung-gu was on three movies "King Maker," "I Want to Know Your Parents," and "Yaksha" in the first half of this year. Actor Song Kang-ho stared in "Broker" then "Emergency Declaration," and movies "Decision to Leave" and "Hansan" starring Park Hae-il were released around the same time.
Park Hae-il said, "It's a non sense that I am at a new film's press conference when 'Decision to Leave' will be released tomorrow," adding, "I am trying to just enjoy this moment as the situation happened against my will due to COVID-19," at a press conference of movie "Hansan."
The So-called "overlapping appearance" is highly likely to negatively affect being the box office hit as those movies do not provide freshness to the audience. But it is evaluated that Park Hae-il brought synergy effect by starring in two completely different genres. He played clean and polite detective in "Decision to Leave," while playing admiral Yi Sun-shin in "Hansan."
"Decision to Leave," which was released in June, has recorded 1.9 million cumulative audiences, exceeding the break-even point (1.2 million people). "Hansan" surpassed the 7 million cumulative audience and achieved the best performance among the four Korean masterpieces released this summer.
Jung Deok-hyeon, a popular culture critic, said, "In the case of Park Hae-il, 'Hansan' received a lot of synergy as he received attention during 'Decision to Leave," adding, " 'Overlapping appearance' did not have much effect because he played two different characters in each movies."
At the time "Hansan" was released, Parodies of him from "Decision to Leave drew attention: "Decision to be Japanese guy," "Is Joseon easy to you?," and "Please bring that kind general's heart."
Go Kyung-pyo who played Soo-wan in "Decision to Leave" also star in comedy movie "6/45" and Netflix original "Seoul Vibe." "6/45" topped the box office on Aug. 28 five days after its release and maintained its position for ten days until "Confidential Assignment 2" was released.
But there are cases where movies of same genre starring same actor release one after another. Ra Mi-ran takes the leading role in both "Honest Candidate 2," to be open on Sept. 28, and "Come Back Home," releasing Oct. 5
Experts say that overlapping appearances in the same genre movie is likely to have a negative impact on making box office hits as it can have a sense of deja vu.
Yoon Sung-eun, a film critic, said, "When films starring same actor is released at the same time, it is rare for both films to do well," adding, "Consumer sentiment has been weakened due to the increase of ticket fee so it is dangerous for movies starring same actor to be released one week apart.
Overlapping appearances are expected to be seen more often, since there are still films left which have not been released. Critic Yoon Sung-eun said, "This is not the fault of an actor since release date of the films unfortunately overlapped. But it is up to the audience on how they will accept it."
Critic Jeong Deok-hyeon said, "Unlike dramas, movies are not aired at the same time, so they do not cause inconvenience to the audience. But it can be a problem if an actor is consumed with the same image over and over again."
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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