JK Youn’s First Musical Film, Hero, Started with 2nd Place in the First Week of Its Release

James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water also maintained its overwhelming No. 1 spot at the box office on the 2nd weekend of its release. Avatar: The Way of Water, which was released on December 14, has topped the box office for 12 consecutive days.

According to the Korean Box Office Information System (KOBIS) of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) on December 26, the number of weekend audiences for Avatar: The Way of Water recorded 1,905,856 viewers with 68.7% of sales from December 23rd to 25th, including the Christmas day. The total number of viewers is 5,575,815, making it the fastest movie to reach 5 million viewers among all films released this year. It is also faster than the box office speed of Avatar, the prequel and the first foreign film released in Korea that set the record for a ’10-million-viewers’ in 2009. 

Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to Avatar, is the first film in 13 years by Director James Cameron following the previous episode. If the prequel depicted the love between humans and the Na’vi, the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water tells the story of their hardships, adversity, and growth as a family against the backdrop of Pandora's sea. In particular, James Cameron's technical achievement, which embodies the sea on the screen, is amazing. 

Hero, directed by JK Youn, who made two masterpieces with 10-million-viewers movies such as Haeundae and Ode to My Father, started at the box office, winning 2nd place with 604,264 audiences and 17.7% sales on the 1st weekend of its release. The total number of audiences so far is 804,749. The fact that the film shared nearly 20% of its sales despite the dominance of Avatar: The Way of Water shows the possibility of the success of Hero. 

Hero is a film about the last year of Ahn Junggeun, who sacrificed his life for his country in Harbin in October 1909 after being sentenced to death by the Japanese court for assassinating Ito Hirobumi. It is JK Youn’s first musical challenge, a film adaptation of the original Korean musical Hero, which has been loved for 14 years since its premiere. Although it is a rare musical film in Korea, it is evaluated that the cinematic variation is also successful while taking advantage of the strength of the original musical at the same time. 

In the last week of 2022, with another new Korean film, Gentleman, about to be released, it is expected that Avatar: The Way of Water, Hero, and Gentleman will drive the box office success to boom up the stagnant theater district in Korea.