The Korean Box Office Needed a Hit and Don Lee Delivered With ‘The Roundup’ | Charts

South Korea’s box office proved remarkably resilient during the pandemic. Theaters never really closed. But the market has needed a big local blockbuster, and “Train to Busan” star Don Lee provided it with his return as a cranky detective kicking righteous ass in the critically acclaimed “The Roundup: No Way Out.”

With a massive $60.35 million in just over two weeks, the action sequel was what South Korean theaters needed after a slow start to 2023 mostly dominated by Hollywood films like “Avatar: The Way of Water” and Japanese releases like “The First Slam Dunk.”

With a population of 51.7 million, under a sixth the size of the U.S., South Korea punches above its weight cinematically: It’s the sixth-largest theatrical market, just behind France, according to Gower Street Analytics, and movie-crazy enough that it outperforms larger countries with well-developed economies like Germany.

A pandemic stalwart looking for hits

South Korea was “one of the few markets, alongside Japan, that never entirely shut down during the COVID pandemic,” Craig Dehmel, Imax’s head of global distribution, told TheWrap. Like other Asian countries, it had experience dealing with pandemics including the relatively recent MERS outbreak in 2015. Theater attendance dropped in early 2020 but was on the upswing by May of that year, thanks in part to South Korea’s aggressive testing regime that far outpaced that of the United States.

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It hasn’t regained its pre-pandemic total of $1.7 billion, but based on the $321 million earned to date, the South Korean box office looks headed to a $1 billion-plus year in 2023, up from $919 million in 2022.

What’s been lacking is a local blockbuster, which “The Roundup” series just provided.

A franchise in the making

“The Roundup” franchise, known as “Crime City” in its native country, pulled in $53 million with 2017’s “The Outlaws” and $99 million with last year’s “The Roundup.” Compare that with “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which took in $108 million in South Korea, and you get a sense of the actioner’s importance to its home market.

The second movie, which sent the protagonist to Vietnam where he encounters a murderous kidnapper, transformed what seemed like a one-and-done crime thriller into a character-specific franchise featuring Inspector Detective Ma Seok-do, played by Lee, a Korean and American actor who also goes by Ma Dong-seok.

But Lee always planned for a franchise, he told TheWrap.

“I got to know real cops and shared countless conversations with them and also did a lot of research,” he said. “Among the 50 stories I got at that time, I intend to make films out of eight of them.”

“The Outlaws” was as much about the villain, a vicious Chinese loan shark named Jang Chen, played by former boy-band singer Yoon Kye-sang, as the heroic detective. But the third film features Ma Dong-seok taking on a leadership role while chasing both a ruthless hitman and a corrupt cop.

As film critic Brent McKnight put it, “The filmmakers know exactly what audiences want — star Ma Dong-seok punching dudes very, very hard and being droll and hilarious as he does.”

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This third chapter is already the biggest-grossing movie in South Korea for 2023, besting Japan’s anime sensation “Suzume” ($42 million). With solid word of mouth, the new “Roundup” absolutely delivers for those who enjoyed its predecessors. Hopes are high that “No Way Out” will leg out to just below “Extreme Job” ($124 million in 2019) or “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” ($130 million in 2014) to become among the biggest South Korean grossers of all time.

Joon-ho Bong’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” remains the top-grossing Korean movie worldwide. But only $73 million of its $253 million total came from Korea.

“The incredible popularity of the franchise, plus word of mouth from South Korea to North America, is what drove people to the cinemas for the previous installment as well as the current one,” said Drew Goldblatt, SVP of North American Distribution for Capelight Pictures, which opened the latest film to $189,000 in its domestic debut on 43 screens.

“What the filmmakers have with ‘The Roundup’ is every producer’s dream,” said Frank Perikleous, Comscore’s vice president for movies in the Asian-Pacific region. “I’d compare it to the ‘John Wick’ films… a well-liked actor playing a now-popular character.”

The hero South Korea needed

“The Roundup: Punishment” is already on tap for early 2024, with another four in development. Lee said that though he “initially planned an eight-film series, if the audience wants, I can continue making more.”

Capelight is optimistic that the third movie will match or exceed its predecessor’s $1.2 million domestic total, while hopes are high that it will top $100 million in South Korea even alongside more Hollywood tentpoles like “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” than the market saw last summer.  

The “Mission: Impossible,” “Fast and Furious,” “John Wick” and “Resident Evil” franchises became majority-overseas hits on their fourth installments. A fourth “Roundup” might do the same, though it has far to go to build its audience outside Korea. Given its comparatively modest budget, though, the franchise doesn’t need that global box office.

“I focused on making a good movie rather than feeling pressure to be a box office hit,” Lee said.

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