| A scene from 'The Outlaws' / Courtesy of Mega Box |
Korean action comedy film "The Outlaws" topped the local box office, Monday, outperforming the U.S. top box office seller "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" and the Korean historical drama "The Fortress."
According to the Korean Film Council, "The Outlaws" beat "The Fortress" by collecting 435,344 moviegoers on Sunday alone. "The Fortress" gathered 365,584 moviegoers the same day.
"The Outlaws" started fairly as the box office No. 3 on its Oct. 3 opening day, along with "The Fortress" that premiered as runner-up, but the action film eventually surpassed the "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" on Friday and caught up to the historical film Sunday.
Many expected "The Outlaws" would fall to the wayside in the fight between the latest "Kingsman" movie entry and "The Fortress," which recorded the top two highest spots in local ticket sales before the 10-day Chuseok holiday.
The British action film opened first in local theaters, grasping 20 percent of ticket sales and rising as the most anticipated film during the Chuseok holiday.
The leading actors of "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" _ Colin Firth, Taron Egerton and Mark Strong _ also made Seoul their first Asian stop to promote their film, helping it hold the top position for a week until "The Fortress" and "The Outlaws" were released.
The Korean action comedy film ranks fourth when counting total movie ticket sales at 1.8 million, following "The Kingsman: The Golden Circle" with 4.4 million, "The Fortress" with 2.99 million and "I Can Speak" with 2.86 million.
Still, considering its budget was only 5 billion won and it is near to reaching 2 million, its break-even point, "The Outlaws" has already achieved its goal.
Fifteen billion won was put into producing "The Fortress" and the historical film needs 5 million spectators to meet the break-even point.
Only 687 theaters screened "The Outlaws" on the first day, half the 1,164 cinemas that screened "The Fortress."
Looking at the screen occupancy share across the country, "The Fortress" has 19.8 percent and "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" takes 16.9 percent while "The Outlaws" has only 11.7 percent. Still, the action comedy film overcame this handicap and increased its screening theaters to 1,314 as an increasing number of people strongly recommended the movie on social media.
"The Outlaws" is based on the notorious criminal ring Heuksapa from Harbin, China, which took over Garibong-dong in Guro-gu, southwestern Seoul, in 2004. It stars popular actors Ma Dong-seok and Yoon Kye-sang.