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| ▲ This file photo shows the promotional material of 'The First Slam Dunk' displayed at a theater in Seoul. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ These photos, provided by distributor NEW, show Song Tae-seop and Kang Baek-ho from 'The First Slam Dunk.' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- Japanese sports animated film “The First Slam Dunk” has hit 3 million admissions in South Korea as of Thursday.
This film adaptation of the epic manga series “Slam Dunk,” which hit the local theaters on Jan. 4, recorded cumulative admissions of 3 million 81 as of 2:25 p.m. Thursday, the 44th day of its premiere. It marks the very first film that hit the big screens in South Korea to be exceeding 3 million cumulative admissions.
The mega-hit work is based on the legendary manga series “Slam Dunk,” which was serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump,” a weekly shonen manga anthology published in Japan under the Jump line of magazines, from 1990 to 1996. The series was definitely a sensation, recording more than 120 million copies of sales worldwide.
Even before its release, the film garnered worldwide attention with Inoue Takehiko, the illustrator of the original manga, being in charge of writing and directing himself. The movie picks up right from where the original manga series left off, featuring the last match between Buksan High School and Sanwang Gong High School. The film shed light on the red-headed Kang Baek-ho as the main protagonist rather than Song Tae-seop, who was the original main character from the manga series and also dubbed the “short bodyguard.”
The animated film scored big on nostalgia, especially among those in their 30s and 40s, who reminisced about their teenagehood during which they cherished the manga series in the 1990s. Their long-standing love and support for the manga series have been analyzed to have brought immediate success also in theaters.
According to data released by CGV, those in their 30s and 40s accounted for 64% of the crowd who watched the film, followed by those in their 20s, which significantly increased after the movie’s release, recording 23.5%.
After creating online buzz and going viral, “The First Slam Dunk” has been topping the Korean box office since Jan. 27, securing its position for 19 days.
The film raked in a total of KRW 30.6 billion as of Wednesday, surpassing the record of the 2016 Japanese animated romantic film “Your Name.” (KRW 29.5 billion), which yet sits in first place among Japanese films released in Korea in terms of admissions.
Meanwhile, the film is looking forward to exceeding the admission record of the second-ranked “Howl’s Moving Castle,” which gathered 301 million Korean moviegoers.
Ryu Sang-heon, the head of the distribution strategy team at NEW, said, “As the original work was a manga sensation in the 90s’, it was powerful enough to stimulate nostalgia for men in their 30s and 40s.”
“The high quality, mesmerizing characters, and the plot that delivers a message that the most important thing is to not lose hope have been drawing even the generation who did not read ‘Slam Dunk’ to theaters,” he added. “The biggest factor of the film’s success is the expansion in the audience range, which now includes women in their 20s.”
Even more than a month after its release, tens of thousands of moviegoers are booking tickets on the weekdays, and the film will also be available in special halls at major theaters starting next month.
Megabox is planning to reopen the film in Dolby Cinema, the chain’s premium cinema that is known for Dolby Laboratories’ signature entrance and intrinsic design features, on Mar. 1. The cinema is particularly optimized for three-dimensional sound and immersion.
In the meantime, CGV will also screen the film at 21 IMAX theaters nationwide on Apr. 5. The IMAX screen touts to provide the highest picture quality on a large screen and also the best sound technology, which allows the audience to delve deeper and be immersed into the films.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Ha eun Lee)
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