Sageuk K-film The King’s Warden with Yoo Hae Jin and Park Ji Hoon Quietly Becomes Second Most Watched and Highest Grossing Domestic Movie of All Time in the Korean Box Office
Wow. Just, wow. Never expected a box office busting hit with either this movie or any recent movies in the South Korean box office which has been in an overall slump for a few years with only the occasional hit. Sageuk movie The King’s Warden with Yoo Hae Jin as the titular warden and Park Ji Hoon as said king this week broke two new milestones. It is now the second highest viewership (i.e. tickets sold) domestic movie of all time in the South Korean box office, surpassing comedy blockbuster Extreme Jobs which has held that spot since 2019. Now only that, based on revenue The King’s Warden is now the highest grossing domestic movie of all time in the South Korean box office over still current number one tickets sold movie The Admiral: Roaring Currents which aired in 2014 so despite having sold more tickets still the cost of admission was cheaper back then so in terms of adjusted box office revenue now The King’s Warden is the highest grossing domestic movie. This is so wild and I can’t watch to check out The King’s Warden and find out why domestic South Korea went crazy for this film.
This is one tear jerker movie with good storytelling that wins the audience’s heart. Yoo Hae-jin is superb as the King’s warden – hope it will win him some awards at year end. His fellow villagers and the King are wonderful too.
Revenues isn’t the fair measure to judge how popular a movie is. Viewership is! Monetary values have to take cost of living and inflation into account! $1 today isn’t the same as $1 20 years ago.
I watched a few K movies. TBH, I’m not that interested. Like who cares if the stories aren’t interesting to me? By far, Kdrama still gives me more entertainment values than K movies. If a piece of performing art — whether it’s a high-brow drama or a blockbuster — fails to engage me as a viewer, its “prestige” doesn’t really matter.
Nowadays, there are so many platforms and so much content competing for attention, I’m impressed and happy that there still exist movies that can capture so much of an audience all at once. Kudos to the film and everyone who worked on it!