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| ▲This photo, provided by CJ ENM, shows "Confidential Assignment 2." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by each companies, shows "6/45" and "Confidential Assignment 2." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by each companies, shows "Comeback Home" and "Honest Candidate 2." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲(Yonhap) |
SEOUL, August 27 (Yonhap) –S.Korean comdey movies “6/45” and “Confidential Assignment 2: International” are meeting fans until next month.
Most of these films cost between 5 and 6 billion won, except “Confidential Assignment 2” which costs 15.5 billion won. As movies like “Top Gun: Maverick” to “Hunt” with the production cost of tens of billions of dollars gains popularity, whether a mid-range Korean comedy can join the box office hit remains as a question.
◇ Divided comedy “6/45” and “Confidential Assignmennt 2”
“6/45,” which was released on Aug. 24,, is about a lottery with a winning prize of 5.7 billion won flying to N.Korea in the wind. The N.Korean soldiers who have the lottery and the South Korean soldiers who want to get it back eventually negotiate to distribute the prize money.
This work, which added a clever imagination to the reality, trescends the cultural differences between the two Koreas into comedy. It has been praised for focusing on the essence of the comedy genre, and since its release, it has been maintaining the second place in the S.Korean box office.
“Confidential Assigenment 2,” which will be released on Sept. 7, is the only new Korean movie to be released during the Korean holiday, Chuseok. Taking one step further from the previous work, which depicted a joint investigation between a North Korean inspector Rim Chol-ryeong (Hyun Bin) and a South Korean detective Kang Jin-tae (Yoo Hae-jin), an FBI agent joined forces to expand the game. While sequels such as “The Roundup,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” and “Hansan: Rising Dragon” making remarkable success in the film industry recently, whether “Confidential Assignment 2” will exceed the audience of its predecessor (7.81 million) is in question.
◇ Ra Mi-ran vs Ra Mi-rann… “Comeback Home” and “Honest Candidate 2”
After the Chuseok holiday, two comedy films starring Ra Mi-ran will be released at intervals of a week. “Comeback Home” will be in theater on Sept. 21, and “Honest Candidate 2” will premiere on Sept. 28.
“Comeback Home” unfolds as an unknown comedian Ki-se (Song Sae-byeok), who came down to his hometown with nothing in 15 years, becomes the boss of an organization. Ra Mi-ran takes on the role of Young-shim, a single mother with great charm.
“The Honest Candidate,” which allowed Ra Mi-ran to win the Best Actress Award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards, is also returning with a sequel. In “Honest Candidate 2',” following former National Assembly member Joo Sang-suk (Ra Mi-ran), the chief of staff Park Hee-cheol (Kim Mu-yeol) is also unable to lie, making both of them to play active roles as “the snouts of truth.”
Park Jin-joo joined as Joo Sang-sook's sister-in-law Bong Man-soon, Seo Hyun-woo as Gangwon-do governor Joo Tae-joo (regular civil servant), and Yoon Doo-joon as “young and rich” CEO Kang Kang-jun.
◇ Average production cost of 78 billion won… Will B-class movies succeed?
Their avergage production cost is 78 billion won.
The work with the highest production cost was “Confidential Assignment 2” with an investment of 15.5 billion won. The number of spectators for the break-even point exceeds 3 million.
“6/45” and “Come Back Home” costed 5 billion won, and “Honest Candidate 2” costed 6 billion won. The break-even point is 1.65 million for “6/45” and for “Honest Candidate 2” and 1.5 million for “Comeback Home.”
With the rapid growth of Over-The-Top streaming services after the pandemic and the rise of movie theater ticket prices, “special theater movies” such as blockbusters have become the mainstream, and the success of such B-class works is likely to depend on word of mouth. .
Jung Deok-hyeon, a popular culture critic, said "These days, audiences don't go to the theater unless they feel that they must see that movie," adding, “That's why it's not easy to succeed unless a work spreads through word of mouth.”
He continued, "In the past, unlike the summer blockbuster market, comedy and human dramas that the whole family can enjoy together around the holidays have been very successful," adding, “If word of mouth like ‘It’s really funny’ spreads, it will show good results.”
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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