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The Box Office Success of Twenty Cements Kim Woo Bin’s Movie Star Cred

A Koala's Playground Posted on by

It’s a good time to be Kim Woo Bin, that’s for sure. The box office numbers are in for the third week of the coming-of-age comedy movie Twenty, starring Kim Woo Bin, Junho of 2PM, and Kang Ha Neul. It’s enough for the pundits to declare the bromance movie a success, taking in over 2.7 million admissions in three weeks and netting over $20 million gross (US dollars). Twenty has already surpassed the box office of Woo Bin’s last movie, also considered a relative success, as The Con Artists (The Technicians) took in 2.6 million in admissions during its run with a gross of over $18 million (US dollars).

Twenty marks Kim Woo Bin’s third cinematic romp in a row, as The Con Artists was only his second hit movie following the 2013 success of Friends 2: The Legacy. That movie took in 2.9 million in attendance with over $21 million gross (US dollars), made all the more impressive since the violent Friends 2 was restricted rating movie. Much as I like Woo Bin, even I’m taken aback at how fast his career has skyrocketed in the last few years. I still remember him doing supporting parts like in Vampire Idol, LOL. I also love how his hit movies are all in different genres with totally different performances from him, nice to see him stretching his acting legs.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Kim Woo Bin sticks to K-movies exclusively from now on, or at least until he gets a drama offer with a guaranteed worthwhile script. Why swim in drama’s little (and unstable) pond when he’s made it in the big leagues.

Comments

The Box Office Success of Twenty Cements Kim Woo Bin’s Movie Star Cred — 65 Comments

    • So happy for him as well. I agree with ockoala, unless a really compelling drama comes up, he should just stay in movies. Drama land has been so awful lately and doing more damage than good to established actors. Maybe if all the big names stay away, the drama producers will step up their game – better budget, casting, stories, directing, filming schedules, etc.

      Really happy for KWB. He became a star by sheer will; wishing him even greater successes.

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    • I don’t know that the success is really due to him or that you have 3 really popular guys in the movie. I wouldn’t attribute all that success to him per say. I do like him but think he’s kind of over-rated. I think his acting is fine, but Kim Soo Hyun and Lee Jong Suk are better actors. But he does have a natural charisma that works well with bad boy characters.

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      • I so agree with you. I’ve watched his dramas: School 2013 and Heirs. I couldn’t see his charm or star power from there. He was just acting typical of outcast or badass. Nothing really in depth to say about his acting. Besides, he looks like a dinosaur tyrex! He’s much over hyped, imo. OK, Woobin fans, please don’t hate me. I’m a frequent visitor of Koala’s blogs. But I really can’t be in her league about Woobin. It just puzzles me how Ms. Koala is so swooned over him. Absolutely no comparison to KSH and LJS!

    • @lari – it’s not just that he had a success with this one film that has two other popular guys cast with him, though if the film failed the biggest detriment would be to him, not Junho or Haneul. Since it was sold on his name and all.

      It’s that this is the THIRD movie in a row that has been a success with him as the lead.

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    • Don’t forget there’s a huge fanclub of 2PM and rabid Junho stans who would crazily empty their pockets to collect/purchase all their merchandise including dramas/movies. Kang Ha Neul has also built his own fan club after impressive acting in Heirs, Misaeng, and specifically Angel Eyes. I don’t know about Junho’s acting although he’s my 2PM bias. But I think KHN is a more talented actor than Woo Bin definitely. The impressive success of Twenty is not entirely attributed to KWB. He’s still not on my top K stars list.

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      • You own so much time under you belt. You left like 10 long comments about how you think KWB not worthy your attention. What do you think you are? A Thor’s hammer? Okay, kitty, you didn’t like him. You said you hated him as Young Do or Heung Soo, I didn’t liked LJS as Soo Ha and Dal Po too, I failed to see appeal of KSH’s Do Myun Joon and LMH as Kim Tan annoyed me to no end. So, possibly I’m going to skip everything with three of them in the future, but should they stop getting roles because of this in my opinion? No. A lot of people like them and I’m not a party ruiner. For me it’s not a problem to skip a movie or drama, if I’m not into the actor/s. And I don’t parade around their articles with comments how they are not worth this or that, should stop playing or how they’re less talented than XXX. Because, if I don’t care and don’t wanna see them, I really don’t care how successful or unsuccessful they are, where they playing, I skip possible threads about them, never read articles and never ever discus them with others. But you methodically move here around telling everyone how you’re not found of KWB, that I find it disturbing. I could understand 1 comment, but not 10. Are you really that interested in KWB? lol Leave the guy and his fans alone. Move to see, I don’t know, some drama and enjoy fried chicken.
        But let me tell one more thing before. Succeess is a team work, but failure bites hard only few out of team. Junho or KHN not the ones who would be blamed for failure of Twenty, but KWB. And before Twenty, The Technicians also faced succsessful box-office numbers. KWB would be welcomed to drama world by many, including his fans, general drama audience and the ones who liked him as Heung Soo and Young Do, with open arms. Don’t confuse your feelings with others. When you can’t see appeal of oranges, others quite enjoy them.

  2. I”m glad for him since he seems like a grounded and humble guy, but I still can’t forget how my sister, who has never watched a k-drama in her life, reacted to him in The Heirs: “OMG he looks like Hell’s CEO!!!” lol
    My sister’s comments aside, he’s a talented guy, so congrats!

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    • it’s received also a lot of the positive reviewers (actually most of them positive, with 3 or 4 being mixed) after all it’s always about taste and reviewers the same biased people. someone likes light, bright comedies, other big budget blockbusters, other mystery triller and someone touching melodramas/dramas. don’t try to make this movie less enjoyable.

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  4. He deserves his success. His agency has a reputation of troublemakers and sharks but hey, they choose the perfect projects for him and given the underwhelming dramas produced lately… The mere fact that he didn’t sign for the new Hong sisters drama is a BIG alert for me.

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    • He didn’t sign for Pinocchio either and IMHO the drama is quite awesome in my book.
      Maybe he just prefer movie than drama.. Or maybe the script is uninteresting for him. Well, we don’t know that for sure.

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      • He never was considered for Pinocchio: Writer & producer clearly said that LJS was their #1 choice since they worked so well in IHYV (& SBS loves its certified cash cows). > Sidus at work again. That said, I wouldn’t mind if they picked him for their next project. We all need to take some reasonable risks to shake the routine. Always breathing the same air…

    • Oh come on, the fact that he declined the Hong Sisters drama doesn’t say anything nowadays!! Look at what happened to hyun bin! He declined KMHM for hyde jekyll and we all know the end of that story. kmhm went on becoming a critical success and the n1 ratings drama and hyde turned into a mess..so you never know!!!

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    • I don’t wanna talk about dramas (because it’s talk to another time), but KWB himself choose both his last projects after he met with directors (both directors really liked him and wanted to play in their movies) and for friend 2 he was recommended by someone close to director. SidusHQ still a so-so company.

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    • I’m not sure if I’m right or not. It seems to me K movies do not have as big an international market than K dramas. I don’t know how much K actors get paid from a movie vs drama. But it gives me impression that K movies are not as competitive in pricing and in demand by international market as K dramas because K dramas can often be sold to other countries for huge profits (for as much as $300,000 USD per episode) but not K movies. It seems to me it’s more competitive in Korean TV casting than in K movie casting. So I think it’s harder for Kim Woo Bin to land a desirable lead role in TV dramas because there’re a long list of Ace actors in the waiting and honestly he’s not on the top favorable tier by many fans (I’m one of them). Don’t hate me because I said something not in favor of your bias. I simply expressed my personal opinions. I don’t have any desire to watch his dramas or movies so far even the story is in my fav genres.

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  5. I swear to god this is more ludicrous and mind blowing then fanfics and will probably put asianfanfics.com to shame.. this is what you call madness people and let me show you why?

    First of all twenty can not be declared success over anything close to it since it only has 2.7mio viewers, and the con artist didn’t do 2.6 but only 2.5(you see where the madness is going and baseless infos)

    The only good one was the ”friend 2 the legacy” since its a violence gang movie but remember it was not a rated movie while airing on the cinemas which actully put even more doubt on it since there was no ID checking for entrance.

    Now this my friends is what you call a fangirl fanfics blog and its embarrasment and to be honest with you folks I like KWB and his an promosing actor but this koala that is out of her mind with these lack of infos.

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    • OH.MY.GOD! You’re here again? Are you going to use different usernames & start bashing koala AGAIN? That trick is getting old u know, not to mention coward. Don’t you have a life? It’s pathetic.

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      • he/she/it is a troll ???l…dang! I have wasted a few minutes of my time replying to that idiot!

      • @Scientia, i dont have the number of Friend 2, but Twenty’s budget is $5 millions, Con Artists’ is around $7 millions ( in USD, of course)

      • Am I missing something here? $20 million revenue in a non-Holywood movie that is mostly only catered to a domestic audience anyways, is a remarkable success. It would be nice to know too what their budget for the film was, as that would make his movies’ success even that more impressive.

    • Hi, delusional troll.

      I’m very sorry it gives you so much heartburn that Kim Woo Bin’s movies ARE successful, all three of them. Twenty will cross the three million admissions mark before the end of next week, maybe you should go see the doctor before then, because I fear you might just explode from rage when that happens.

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    • what madness? what are you talking about? from what I know, admission more than 2 million is considered a success esp in this cutthroat business. 2.6 and 2.7 has small different which is negligible . It does not matter whether this blog fanfic fangirl blog, the most important is koala bring us news which are unique and rarely found in other sites. probably you should go to allkpop or create your own blog to satisfy your need. i am sure you will have many followers.

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      • It depends on the budget of the movie, Twenty’s break-even point was 2.2 million admissions and it has over 2.8 million admissions as of right now.

        But for a bigger budget movie obviously the number of admissions required to break even would be higher (like big retro productions like C’est So Bon which needed 3 million admissions to break even, or big sageuk movies).

    • like you that or not, 2 million for movie = success. also, friend 2 was rated +19. i was asked ID, ’cause i look younger than my age. try to troll under other articles. no need to mess up mood here.

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    • Let’s play a game.

      To which fandom does this disgruntled fanboy/girl belongs?

      Guesses?

      PS. Good for KWB. If I were him I would stick with the movies for now, dramas simply aren’t just that exciting anymore nowadays.

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    • drunk? lool? whatever! look this koala has been feeding teenages baseless infos.. I have nothing against anyone else except her for having no cred behind her writtings. just pointing out the striking truth and nothing else then the truth in this case for people to judge it for themselves.

      But I do smell a pissed off koala bear spamming her on blog well congrats with that..

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      • @mystith above did post the statistics and it was spot-on with what Koala shared. Now, if you would be so kind to humour us why you think the movie was not a success? Revenue? Viewer shares? Admissions? Your arguement from above lacks any substantial reasoning behind it. It would be nice to know why a 2.5 million (or 2.6 or 2.7 for that matter) is not considered a successful number? From @mystith’s link, the only movie which is markedly more successful than KWB’s movies is Ode to Father, which claims the top spot and hold quite a large gap from the rest of the films currently on theaters.

        And no, I’m no fan of KWB. However, I’m quite curious why you seem to have some venom against him and Koala?

      • wow,its a jobless person with nothing to do. lol,you do know you don’t have to read the blog right?

  6. i really like the way he finally choose k-movies instead dramas. movie’s actor always more hotter than drama’s actor (won bin jang donggun kang dong won ha jung woo). drama always the baby steps of actor.

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    • Koala is right, those who can stay away from dramas usually do: after all, the pay generally isn’t as good, the schedule is grueling, and you are at the whim of writers and directors who may plunge the project into hopeless, embarrassing mediocrity no matter what the actor attempts. Plus, you are more likely to end up acting with other newbies like yourself, where you can’t really learn much. I wouldn’t blame him if he stuck to movies. Then there is the added bonus that you may gain some blissful distance from crazed fangirls – either for OR against you…

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  11. Then @Ouch troll is the same troll as always, just a different username and then using a few different IP addresses which are all tracked to the same user. Sorry peeps, I’ve let this individual’s incendiary comments for the past year in various posts get out of hand and ruin the intelligent and thoughtful discussion atmosphere in the comment sections. Going forward, I’ll be blocking and deleting any comments from the same individual under whatever username or IP address once I track it.

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    • thanks Koala. I’ll make a note not to reply to @Ouch/Joey/whatever u/n they choose, any more. Their posting style is quite distinctly rabid and incoherent, it should be easy to remember.

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    • Yes thank you! I’ve been wishing for you to do this for a long time.I don’t always share your opinion either but what s/he has been doing doesn’t fall in the category of difference of opinion by any means rather should termed as online bullying.I was really taken aback to see the length to which this crazy person can go!

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  12. KWB should stick to movies.look what happened to HHJ,she was once called the queen of movies.I want woobs to come to the small screen,movies are way too short,plus it takes long before fans can watch then,some cant even watch them.so,since he’s had back to back success of movies,i think its time he does a drama,or else he will lose some fans becos fans watch dramas movie than movies

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    • ….but if Han Hyo Joo had been doing dramas after her scandal, then those would have flopped too. Not sure what point you’re trying to make here, but doing dramas doesn’t make you any less vulnerable to being brought down by a scandal.

      And dramas struggling to make 10 percent ratings versus movies with better working conditions which will usually be declared hits at 2 million viewers…guess which one most actors will choose.

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  14. Rather than being a neurotic and replying to yourself, why don’t you engage on intelligent debate instead? The statistics were posted above and it corroborates Koala’s post. Again, the question remains, why do you think it’s not successful enough?

    And granted, even IF Koala somehow have a preference to KWB–so what? I don’t think you’re exactly insulting Koala by insinuating that she has a bias for him. In fact, you’re only making it look like you have been severely butthurt by the fact that she likes him. Moreover, in your petty attempt to troll Koala, it only confirms it for her (and the rest of us) how easily delicate your own feelings are. In effect, you’re only exposing YOUR weakness here, not Koala’s. Don’t embarrass yourself.

    Or is this truly about you being butthurt about (insert your bias’ name here) not being recognized by Koala? Is this what this is really all about?

    If so, please confirm your age here.

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  20. really good news but I hope he make drama Con Artists was good but 2 hours not enough ..And i don’t think he will offer any drama this year . i hope the best for him

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  21. I can’t speak for the other movies, but Twenty was a great fun to watch. It was funny and very well acted. It was extremely silly, but all the actors gave it layers that added heart, and prevented it from being annoying. My favorite part was how the actresses were standouts, as well as the boys. Woo Bin was great, but Kang Ha Neul is my favorite.

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  22. @SoyJade – I have not seen Twenty but I did see Friend 2 and Con Artists….Friend 2 was a good movie with a really good performance b . Woobin, while Con Artists was an enjoyable but dumb fanservice movie.

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  25. i am a new fan of KWB by accident ?….while switching channels …
    there aired The Heirs and instantly i like ….his unique looks and searching all about him. i wish him always success on every projects and happy live

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