‘The Roundup’ Retains Korea Box Office Lead Ahead of Newly Released ‘Broker’

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” has become Netflix’s latest Korean-made international hit. The Korean remake of “La Casa de Papel” (aka “Money Heist”) is in first place on the streaming giant’s Global Non-English top ten chart over the last week.The series premiered on Friday (June 24), meaning that it only had three days to claim its spot in chart that covers the period June 20-26.

Hallyu is an invented term used to describe the rising global popularity of Korean culture, but it also has never been more applicable in Hollywood than at this moment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Top Gun Maverick” flew to the top of the box office charts in South Korea over the weekend, with a supersonic $9.6 million opening loop. It replaced “The Witch: Part 2 The Other One,” which had been top dog for only a week.Tom Cruise, a regular visitor to Korea, jetted into Seoul with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and co-stars Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Greg Tarzan Davis to goose the movie’s takeoff in the country. Cruise professed himself grateful for the fan’s warm reception and talked up the importance of in-person visits to the cinema.Sub-distributed in Korea by Lotte Entertainment, the film opened on Wednesday and played on more than 1,900 screens.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefStars Piolo Pascual and Lovi Poe head the cast of the Philippines adaptation of Korean Series “Flower of Evil.” It begins airing across East Asia and parts of the Middle East. The romance-thriller series involves a female detective who suspects that her husband is a serial killer.The original show was produced by CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon and aired on tvN in 2020.

BTS against embarking on their previously announced extended break.The association released a statement on June 22, per The Korea Times, where a “concerned” Lee wrote about a personal unease regarding the possible consequences for the K-pop industry stemming from BTS’ break.The K-pop boyband first announced last week that they would be “[taking] time to explore some solo projects” during a live broadcast celebrating their ninth anniversary. The boyband are set to embark on an extended break in order to pursue personal endeavours.“I’m concerned that the Korean wave centring around BTS, which has the strongest cultural soft power in Korea and the world, may fade away … Like a ‘second Beatles’ won’t arrive easily, it is unlikely for there to be a ‘second BTS,’ so I’m worried that hallyu may be cut,” the statement read.Further in the statement, Lee requested for the K-pop juggernauts to “reconsider” their decision to go on the extended break, writing: “You may have made the decision after deep deliberation, but would you reconsider [a withdrawal of the decision] for the sake of Korea’s music industry?”According to The Korea Times, Lee’s statement also posited that without the presence of BTS, there would also be a lack of their fanbase, officially named ARMYs.

EXCLUSIVE: Industry tech provider Deluxe has appointed former Netflix Korea exec Samantha Kim to the role of Managing Director, Business Development, APAC.

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Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe theatrical debut of much-anticipated local horror-action film “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One” dominated the Korean box office chart over the latest weekend and overshadowed the simultaneous release of Pixar title “Lightyear.”Distributed by Next Entertainment World, “The Witch: Part 2” conjured up an $8.21 million opening weekend from just shy of 1,800 screens nationwide. That gave it a market share of 48%.

The cast of Top Gun: Maverick gathers together on the red carpet for a group shot at the premiere event held at Lotte World on Sunday (June 19) in Seoul, Korea.

Paramount+ has expanded into South Korea, marking the first time the streaming service is available in Asia, Paramount announced Wednesday.Starting now, subscribers of South Korea-based streaming platform Tving will be able to stream Paramount+ content at no additional cost. This includes Paramount+ originals “Halo,” “Mayor of Kingstown” and “1883” along with shows from Paramount-owned Showtime including “Yellowjackets” and “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” all of which are available in Korea for the first time.The deal is part of a global partnership between Paramount and CJ ENM, which co-owns Tving, and will also see seven Korean original shows distributed on Paramount+.The first production to launch as part of that partnership is the upcoming series “Yonder,” set to launch on Tving in late 2022 and on Paramount+ where the services is available.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Paramount+ streaming service launches Thursday in South Korea as a free-of-charge addition to the CJ ENM-controlled TVing platform.Paramount+ originals such as “Halo,” in addition to “Yellowjackets,” “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” “Mayor of Kingstown” and “1883” will be released for the first time in Korea, exclusively through the new branded zone. It will also provide access to library movie titles including “Mission: Impossible,” “Top Gun,” and “Transformers,” CBS series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “NCIS,” Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” Comedy Central’s “South Park,” MTV’s young adult series and others from Showtime.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentBack in Japan after his Korean-language drama “Broker” won two prizes at this year’s Cannes festival, Kore-eda Hirokazu appeared as a press event in Tokyo on Tuesday to announce the launch of a group of industry professionals who aim for structural reform of the Japanese film industry.The group calls itself the “Association for the Establishment of a Japanese Version of CNC.” The reference is to France’s government-backed oversight body, the Centre National du Cinema et de l’Image Animee. Kore-eda noted the low incomes and long working hours of freelance filmmakers and emphasized the need for reform.

Broker lead actor Song Kang-ho has shared his thoughts on his recent Best Actor win at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.In a recent interview with South Korean outlet Korea JoongAng Daily, the South Korean actor, who plays Sang-hyun in the film, shared his sentiments on “finally” taking home an award at the Cannes Film Festival after previously starring in six films that have all debuted at the festival prior.Song is the second Korean to win Best Actor, after Jeon Do-yeon for 2007’s Secret Sunshine. “Of course, winning an award from such a prestigious festival as Cannes is a great and happy moment, an unforgettable turning point of my life,” Song said, before adding that awards are not as significant as they might seem.“I don’t think the action [of receiving an award] itself holds much significance,” he explained.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Broker,” the unconventional family drama which appeared in competition at last month’s Cannes Film Festival, topped the box office in South Korea on Wednesday, its opening day.“Broker” grossed $1.10 million, enough to depose crime actioner “The Roundup” from the top spot that it had enjoyed for the past three weeks and which had made it the highest performing film this year.According to data from the Kobis tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, “Broker” played on 1,590 screens and sold 145,000 tickets for Wednesday screenings. Its cumulative total of $1.15 million includes some $44,000 of previews earned on 14 screens.The feat by a local art-house film gives further support to the notion that cinema attendance is rebounding in Korea.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Jurassic World: Dominion” scored the third highest opening weekend of the year in South Korea, but still managed only second place at the box office, a further sign of recovery in the country.For the third weekend in a row, proceedings were dominated by local crime action film “The Roundup.” It earned $10.4 million over the Friday to Sunday period, down 32% from its previous weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After nearly three weeks on release, the film has an accumulated total of $73.3 million.Its cumulative total is built on 8.87 million spectators.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticOne of the most enjoyable South Korean action movies in recent years, 2017’s “The Outlaws” was a deft mix of brutal gang-warfare thrills and Keystone Cops comedics. It provided an ideal vehicle for Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee (“Train to Busan” and “Eternals”) as the police investigator whose hit-first-ask-permission-later methods regularly got the job done while infuriating his superiors.That burly protagonist and his sidekicks are back in “The Roundup,” which despite a different directorial (newbie Lee Sang-yong replacing the prior edition’s Kang Yoon-seong) and writing crew, maintains the original’s strengths.

Netflix just dropped the brand new trailer for Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area!

SISTAR member Hyolyn is set to release new music later this year.In a statement released to South Korean media earlier today (June 3), her label Bridʒ announced that the singer is preparing to release new music next month. “As she is dubbed a ‘Summer Queen,’ she will come back with songs so people can have another ‘hot summer’ this year,” the label said of the forthcoming project, per Korea JoongAng Daily.The label added that the forthcoming project will be “something more than what was seen on Queendom 2.” Further details on Hyolyn’s upcoming project are expected to be released in the following weeks.Hyolyn’s new release will come six months after the release of ‘Layin’ Low’.