Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum’s Sci-fi Movie Seobok Tops the Box Office in Mid-April Premiere and Becomes the First Domestic Hit of 2021
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Las year the Korean box office went from $1.5 billion to $250 million due to the pandemic and this year it’s on the same pace so movies released in 2020 after March through the end of the pandemic will have to be judged relative to other such movies and unable to garner the same level of ticket sales and attendance. This year the big movies in South Korea have all been foreign films – Japan’s Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train, Minari from the US, and most recently Godzilla v. Kong. This past weekend the first domestic hit has arrived in the relatively big budget sci-fi moody thriller Seobok starring Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum by the director of Architecture 101. The theater release brought in 210,000 tickets sold from Thurs night through Sunday, and the movie also got a simultaneous online release on TVing which did not disclose streaming numbers. The reviews are mixed, some praising the more thoughtful and contemplative flick for the many conversations about the meaning of life and death rather than a straightforward action escape thriller. Gong Yoo had to do the promos solo as Park Bo Gum has been in the army since last summer but the two prepared in advance magazine pictorials and recorded video greetings so that’s a nice touch. Congrats to the crew for creating a reason for more viewers to start heading back to the cinemas.
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Congratulations team Seobok,??fighting bogummy,❤❤
In another news Seo Yeji’s movie is releasing tommorow and according to naver it has the highest reservation rate amongst the movies releasing now..even beating Seobok..Hmm.. that’s quite an achievement though despite the controversy..I think she will be able to come back after sometime and people will welcome her with open arms..
As for her Baeksang, even Kim Min Hee was awarded the best actress in Blue dragon over Yu Yeon Jeong,Son Ye Jin , Han Yeri and Jo Yo Jeong..Thus if the judges like Yeji’s performance,there won’t be any prejudice . There is no conspiracy going on here.
She can’t comeback, that gonna be her last movie
The caveat to the Kim Min Hee scenario is that almost a year after her scandal broke out, she only got single vote from the jury at Baeksang and lost to Son Yejin. These things can go either way but Seo Yeji fans saying it’s sabotage is laughable.
Yes you are right..But at that time it must have been really hard for the judges to choose the winner..Besides, Yejin was so great in Last Princess.She deserved that Baeksang..I think international recognition doesn’t always transcends to full award sweeps in the home country..Despite Parasite winning Oscar ,Song Kang Ho lost to Lee Byung Hun in last year’s award shows…But atleast Kim MinHee won atleast one i.e The Blue Dragon, so i think judges try to distance themselves from the nominees’ personal lives as much as possible.
Plus ,this time Kim So Yeon’s sim card scene alone outsold other nominees jk?..But yes no doubt Penthouse is the New When Camellia Blooms..I am just laughing at the sabotaging theories made by her fans.
GM is doing an awful job protecting their client. Like sheesh. (Allegedly if they do protect her, it’ll bring down KSH too). What’s strange about her cases regarding bullying/school has been either clarified or talked about by her in the past. She said she was a loner/outcast in school b/c she was a ‘grandma’ like student who only cared about studying, and she helped someone who was bullied. And another one is she said in a past interview that she was accepted to the university in Spain, but decided not to go in the end in 2017. So what is the truth and lies with her? Is this another T-ara situation w/ the situation’s truth finally being revealed later? Altho when there’s smoke there’s fire…
Reminds of Kim Min Hee to a lesser extent regarding having controversy for a film that ended up becoming successful in the end. Kim Min Hee also won a Baeksang or Blue Dragon Award for Best Actress, and The Handmaiden took home the Daesang (Film) at the Baeksang’s so I wouldn’t be shocked if in some way (IOTNBO) takes home the Daesang to Kim Soo Hyun. It has the international acclaim (NY Times/others), and better ratings than the other shows, and its the most ‘social’/less genre than the other ones (Beyond Evil/Flower of Evil are great competition).
But for SYJ, b/c she has so many other stuff coming at her, and her ‘apology’ amongst other tidbits popping up on her. I feel like her image has taken a big nose dove in the public. I think she could do Indies (as she has been doing), but a big project again, she would have to wait some time (2-4 yrs) before she gets a FL in a drama. Who knows, she didn’t commit an actual crime (where she was jailed per say), but she did let her antics affect a drama, and her diva like antics (she’s not at that star power yet to demand it), could rub people off. But if she’s dating her GM CEO, then she has some backing behind her. People who’ve high pride/self esteem tend to claw their way back, and SYJ just has that vibe that she’ll do so whatever the cost.
It’s hard to day. The filming landscape has changed quite a bit in the last few years with OTT services in the picture. More and more productions are not even getting broadcasted on a TV network and going straight to OTT platforms. International audience are less hung up about actors’ personal controversies.
@bbc Good point. The way the industry is going, OTT services are growing more and more popular by the day. So many films due to Covid have moved online now, and some films now go into digital 3-4 weeks after it hits theaters. I mean, Jung Eun Chae had an affair with a married man, tried to play it off as “Oh me, what? I’m innocent” is cast in Pachinko (which is a huge 100 mil + show).
She might not get the FL, but she’ll prob. try to make her way back into FL again that way. They’re actresses with tough/strong like Go Hyun Jung/Yoo Yuh Jung, I mean their co-stars have said how intimidated/afraid they were of them at first. So honestly, who knows? (But the vids of her on YT of her flirty behavior/being called sexist names ain’t helping her case). In SYJ’s case, she could do a Han Hyo Joo and go to H-wood, do a role there, and/or get some clout and try to make it in an Apple+/Disney+/Netflix/(Universal-I heard there going to make K-dramas soon) route. (Kim Ah-Joong who also had a tax evasion scandal got hit w/ a ban from dramas for 3 yrs, and barely does dramas now, but she just got offered the FL in a Disney+ K-drama now).
As long as didn’t bite off all the hands, she could have a PD offer her one in those streaming platforms. I mean, even Lee Jin W00K was offered the ML in Return (Which did amazing) by a PD (Like not even fully 2 yrs) after his on-going trial barely finished.
Seo Yeji’s fanclubs united in a support project to buy the tickets, that’s why the reservation rate is so high.
Was just going to say this. The ticket sales will be there but there will be a lot of empty seats since the fans are international.
Yep yep. Saw them planning it on Twitter. Just like they teamed up with another fandom to give her the popularity award at Buil and APAN. It became quite a fuss on stan Twitter who accused her fans of cheating. Someone even went so far as to write about it here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/27248008
Wow, shameless comments that no one need.
Life doesn’t revolve around her and if mass buying tickets shows anything, it screamed desperate and that no one aside of the fans bought the tickets.
I don’t mind high sales because there are other people work there too but to shows that is better than seobok organic hit is just delusional
Hmm. So the reviews I’ve seen so far range from scathing to just okay. One even calls it predictable and underwhelming. Definitely not the kind of descriptors I expected for a GY-PBG movie. But I’ll check it out later and see how it goes.
Must be tough for the movie industry. This drama is the top grossing but so far they’ve only generated 200k admissions since Apr 15.
I watched Seobok with little expectations and still got disappointed, waste of everyone’s time and money… ?
The reviews are terrible though.