Aside from the cheesy low budget early posters for Confidential Assignment 2: International, I figured this movie would appeal to the general public and be a moneymaker and good buzz for all involved. Then the last two weeks the cast and crew went all out on the promo circuit, I counted at least four different press conferences and events and multiple premieres, the dudes all looked similar but anytime Yoona had a different outfit I knew it was a different event lol. Then they cast did a smashing 1st Look pictorial and made me wish more movies would go all in with the press like this. Earlier in the summer the cast of Alienoid did it too and that movie was a hit. Confidential Assignment 2 joins that list albeit released at the tail end of the summer, but is catching the Chuseok festival so plenty of vacation days for folks to head to the movies. In just three days this movie crossed 1 million moviegoers, and passed 2 million in 6 days and counting.
Alienoid didn’t even reach break-even point. Budget was around US$24 million and it only made US$12 million.
Besides the promo by the cast, I believe the more important factor for the box office success is the great reviews that the movie has been getting, both from media critics and audience word-of-mouth. If the strong word-of-mouth continues, it will have legs to go even further on the box office/ viewers results. Will be interesting to see if it can hit the magic mark of 10 million viewers.
Congrats to Binnie and team! He has a few more movies to release and film next. Wonder if and when he will return to dramas?
Also , correction! The movie sold 3M tickets in 6 days, not 2.