

By August 15th, it had even dethroned the summer blockbuster 'Smugglers,' becoming the top-grossing film with over two million moviegoers in attendance. By August 12th, the Korean Film Council announced that the film had officially attracted a total of 1.1 million moviegoers, achieving this milestone in just 4 days. Concrete Utopia marks his second directorial endeavor.Ĭoncrete Utopia is already breaking recordsĬoncrete Utopia was released on Wednesday, August 9th. It is directed by Um Tae-hwa, who previously won the Best New Director award at the 54th Grand Bell Awards in 2017 for his debut film, Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned (2016). The film is loosely based on Part 2 of the popular webtoon Joyful Outcast.

However, a tense standoff ensues between the insiders and the outsiders, with the former prepared to take any measure necessary to protect their sanctuary. Yeong-tak, portrayed by Lee Byung-hun, emerges as a leader for the inhabitants, receiving assistance from Min-Seong, played by Park Seo-Joon, a public servant, and his nurse wife Myeong-hwa, portrayed by Park Bo Young. Amidst the destruction, the Imperial Palace Apartments in Seoul stands as a lone building amidst the wreckage, offering refuge to those who managed to find shelter within its walls.
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Set in Seoul, the movie portrays a city left in ruins by the earthquake's impact. The film is a post-apocalyptic thriller depicting the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in South Korea. It’s questionable whether filmmakers will see a virtuous circle of money flow this summer, which is critical to raising investment for next projects,” said Kim Dong-ha, a professor at Hansung University’s College of Future Convergence Social Science.What is the film Concrete Utopia really about? “It will become harder for the investors and distributors to make a profit if the current number of moviegoers shows a similar trend to August last year at 12.14 million visitors. “With the consecutive successes of creative K-content like ‘The Glory’ and ‘Squid Game,’ movies like ‘The Moon’ clearly show local audiences’ thirst for new subjects, and out-of-the -box creative scenes,” an industry insider said. Industry insiders point out that the success of homegrown blockbusters now heavily depend on a fresh, creative subject and unprecedented setting. “The Moon” attracted 483,834 moviegoers as of Monday, far short of its break even point of 60 million. A slew of Hollywood space survival flicks like “Gravity” (2013) and “Interstellar” (2014), has left moviegoers growing tired of the genre. The 28 million-won film's scale, meticulously detailed set design and sophisticated use of computer graphics combined was not in itself enough to excite the viewing public. Performing even worse at the box office is “The Moon,” which opened on the same day.Īs widely expected, this moon-themed Korean sci-fi flick repeated the earlier failures of “Space Sweepers” (2021), “Seo Bok” (2021) and “Jung_E” (2022). “Ransomed” attracted 981,488 moviegoers after its release on Aug. Despite the film’s exotic setting and action-packed storyline, “Ransomed” failed to overcome the jaded audiences’ disappointment in the all-too-familiar plot. “Ransomed,” set in Lebanon, stars the familiar duo of Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon from “Along with the Gods,” this time playing men on a mission to rescue a fellow diplomat. Press reviews and viewer responses described a strong sense of deja vu in the plots, which undermined their big budgets and high production values.

Meanwhile, two other summer films - “Ransomed” and “The Moon” - are box office bombs. The predictable, melodramatic conclusions of disaster flicks may also work against “Concrete Utopia,” but the unprecedented setting of the film seems ot be a draw. “Concrete Utopia” is based on a webtoon, which is a risk, since a lot of webtoon-inspired films have flopped here. On the first opening weekend, “Concrete Utopia” attracted 1.12 million moviegoers as of Sunday and looks set to break even, as the film, which has a similar budget to “Smugglers,” nears 4 million moviegoers. 103, the only building left standing after a devastating earthquake in Seoul. Following the success of “Smugglers” is director Um Tae-hwa’s “Concrete Utopia,” a dystopian thriller which tells a story of the residents of Hwanggung Apartment No.
