The King of Kings and 5 other Korean films that broke records at US box office
Adapted from Charles Dickens' The Life of Our Lord, this faith‑based animation hit major milestones within three weeks of its April 11 release, strategically timed around Easter.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite made history as the first non‑English language film to win the Best Picture Oscar. In North America, it grossed $53.8 million, per Box Office Mojo. Its US release began in just three cinemas and still pulled in $376,000 during the opening weekend, demonstrating strong demand for Korean-language films in the American market.
Action thriller The Roundup (2022), starring Ma Dong-seok, earned $812,859 in the US and Canada, according to The Numbers. It opened with $102,204 and has grossed over $101 million worldwide. The series continues to expand with new sequels riding on its success.
Directed by Kim Han-min, Hansan: Rising Dragon earned $865,888 in North America during its limited theatrical release, as tracked by Box Office Mojo. Globally, it grossed $57.5 million, securing its place among the most successful Korean films of its year.
Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden became the director's most successful US film, earning over $2 million despite debuting in only five theatres. It surpassed his earlier release, Stoker, establishing his international appeal and cult following.
While detailed US box office numbers are less abundant, the two-part fantasy series Along With the Gods (2017, 2018) achieved massive international success. Media reports indicate the franchise earned impressive global figures, contributing to Korean cinema's growing footprint in foreign markets.
The King of Kings leads with $54.7 million, overtaking Parasite.
It earned $53.8 million, starting from just three theatres.
Both had limited runs: The Roundup made $812,859 and Hansan earned $865,888.
It earned more than $2 million from a US limited release.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
5 hours ago
- Hans India
Too Yumm! Signs Ananya Panday as the Face of K-Bomb, Launches QR-Led Noodle Campaign That's Stirring Buzz
After a successful entry into the instant noodles category last year through K-Bomb, Too Yumm! quickly became a favourite among Korean noodle lovers. Taking a bold step to solidify its position in the premium noodles segment, the brand has now joined hands with youth icon Ananya Panday to further elevate its appeal. 'Ananya's vibrant personality and strong youth connect fit perfectly with Too Yumm! K-Bomb's identity as a fun & tasty noodles brand. Her influence and relatability make her an ideal fit to drive brand appeal to modern, mindful consumers' said Yogesh Tewari, Chief Marketing Officer, Too Yumm! Simultaneously, its popular K-Bomb range along with the already hit flavours like Hot n Spicy & Tom Yum has expanded with three exciting new flavours Kimchi, Korean Chicken & Sichuan Pepper Corn. It has also launched an innovative OTG (On-The-Go) cup noodles pack, making the brand even more accessible and convenient for a wider, on-the-move audience. The association kicks off with the high-energy content series 'Slurp n Spill', a rapid-fire style podcast where Ananya brings her signature sass, spontaneity, and snack obsession to the forefront. The campaign positions K-Bomb as the go-to snack for India's youth – fiery, flavourful, and unapologetically bold. The campaign is designed to cut through ad fatigue with snackable, high-entertainment value content that resonates with Gen Z's appetite for experiences over advertisements. The campaign rollout also included high-impact QR code activations across key metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata - that drive on-ground intrigue and direct consumers to engaging digital content. Eye-catching OOH installations with first of a kind Manga inspired designs added to the momentum, 'Consumers today are increasingly averse to traditional advertising. To truly connect with them, brands need to offer something of value—whether it's humor, entertainment, or insight. A celebrity podcast delivers on all fronts, seamlessly blending storytelling and star power. Our goal isn't just for consumers to see our ad—it's for them to enjoy the experience.' said Yogesh Tewari, Chief Marketing Officer, Too Yumm! The campaign is amplified through a digital-first strategy, supported by culture platforms, Bollywood paparazzi pages, and meme communities, as well as Ananya's active fan communities. The 'Slurp n Spill' podcast is now live on Too Yumm!'s official YouTube and social media channels. (Instagram Link 1, Link 2, Facebook) This campaign also marks Too Yumm!'s strategy to stir up the noodles category, driven by evolving consumer needs. 'Too Yumm! has earned its place as a trusted snack brand,' said Tewari. 'K-Bomb is our answer to the growing demand for meals that are indulgent, flavorful, and satisfying. It's a ramen bomb that doesn't just fill you up, but fires up your taste buds.'
The Hindu
11 hours ago
- The Hindu
‘Gachiakuta': The politics of trash and the rise of the subaltern
By the time Gachiakuta's white-haired protagonist is hurled into its festering underworld, dumped like garbage into the detritus of a caste-stratified society, the fall feels inevitable. He had always lived socially, spatially, and spiritually adjacent to the trash heap, and the obliviating void of The Pit was merely the logical endpoint of a life marked by othering, suspicion, and a cultural rot disguised as law and order. Japanese mangaka Kei Urana's story may be built on a mountain of waste, but at its core, it's about class. About what happens when society draws a hard line between the people it deems worthy and the ones it would rather pretend don't exist. Rudo, a child of the slums, is the inheritor of ancestral shame and the progeny of people deemed subhuman. These 'tribesfolk,' descended from exiled criminals, exist in a zone of perpetual contamination. When something, or someone, no longer fits into the narrative of purity and progress, they're tossed into The Pit. Much like in Bong-Joon-ho's Parasite, where the faint but inescapable 'smell of the poor' becomes a sensory marker of class that offends the wealthy, Gachiakuta uses trash and filth as the lingering evidence of those made inconvenient to society's delusions of cleanliness. In both, the idea of 'purity' becomes weaponised, turning the impoverished into something grotesque, to be hidden, expelled, or dropped into a pit when they go against the moral hygiene of the powerful. This dystopia offers a diagram of the colonial gaze. In the historical machinery of imperialism, the colonised were marked first by their utility, and then by their abjection. Once stripped of national belonging and transformed into subaltern subjects, they became discardable. Much like the Israeli state's systematic dehumanisation, with Palestinians lives reduced to security risks, obstacles, or collateral, Gachiakuta depicts a world where the subaltern are deprived of personhood, reclassified as waste, and their disposability is built into the machinery of order itself. When Rudo is framed for a murder there is no trial worth mentioning. His skin is dirty, his hands are scarred, and his history is known. Guilt is automatically ascribed by lineage. The slum kid. The son of a murderer. The inevitable repeat offender. This kind of predetermined guilt has real-world echoes in the long global history of Indigenous children labeled as delinquents, of Dalits punished for crimes committed against them, of Palestinians tried in a system designed for their erasure. It's not enough to be poor or from the 'wrong' side of town — you also have to carry the suspicion of violence, of danger, and of inherent corruption. Gachiakuta does not leave Rudo to rot, but arms him — both literally and figuratively — with a power drawn from that which has been discarded. Vital Instruments or 'Jinki', the story's totemic weapons, are everyday objects imbued with memory, grief, and spirit. This reorientation from trash as detritus to trash as inheritance flips the colonial lens on its head. Here, Gachiakuta gives identity back to the dehumanised. Restoring dignity to the castoff, animating the abject, breathing life into the corpse of the colonised subject — these are things that the empire has always feared. Rudo's power as a 'Giver' is a clever ontological statement. He becomes an anti-colonial artisan, forging weapons and meaning from refuse. The story's visual language amplifies this ethos. The graffiti-inspired designs and the grubby textures coalesce into a form of resistance that is not clean, or noble, or photogenic, but dirty and desperate and made from spare parts. Anime has long smuggled sharp class critique into its storytelling. In Attack on Titan, the Eldians are walled-off, vilified, and turned into weapons. In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the Ishvalan people are victims of ethnic cleansing, their culture burned and bodies buried beneath the myth of national unity. Pluto, Naoki Urasawa's reimagining of an Astro Boy arc, wrestles with who gets to decide what counts as human, while Cyberpunk: Edgerunners shows a city that chews up the poor and sells their rebellion back to them. The main tension in Gachiakuta is between visibility and erasure. Between those who can afford to forget, and those who are remembered only as a cautionary tale. What the story ultimately suggests is that the act of naming the Other — of calling someone 'criminal,' 'subhuman,' or 'trash' — is a prelude to disposal. But the response need not be assimilation. Rudo does not want to be accepted by the Sphere. He does not crave forgiveness. He wants something messier and more honest, like revenge and reclamation. This furious vision in Gachiakuta isn't entirely new, but it feels especially urgent at a time when resistance to oppression is being rebranded as terrorism, disruption, or disorder. This is a reminder of what every empire is trying to bury: the garbage dump never forgets. Gachiakuta premieres on Crunchyroll on July 6 with new episodes weekly. The first two episodes of the series were made available to the author for review.
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Time of India
Cate Blanchett's shocking cameo in Squid Game 3: What it means for fans and future spin-offs
That Finale Twist-Cate Blanchett in a Suit Playing Ddakji? Yes, You Read That Right! So, you've just binged Squid Game 3, and you're still recovering from the emotional rollercoaster, right? But then-BOOM!-the last scene drops: Cate Blanchett, yes, The Cate Blanchett, strutting down an American alley in a sharp suit, slapping down ddakji like she's been training her whole life. If your jaw hit the floor, you're not alone. This wild cameo has sent the fandom into a total meltdown, with everyone asking: "Wait, are we getting a US version of Squid Game now?" Turns out, even the cast was blindsided. Wi Ha Joon (our forever detective Jun Ho) admitted in interviews that he had no clue about Blanchett's appearance and was just as shocked as the rest of us. He fangirled hard, calling her "so cool and impressive" and confessed he'd love to join if there's ever an American spin-off. Imagine Jun Ho chasing down game recruiters in LA-now that's a crossover we need! Fans Are Freaking Out-But Not Everyone's Loving the "US Version" Hype While some are hyped about a possible Hollywood spin, a lot of OG fans are... not having it. Social media blew up with hot takes, with many saying turning Squid Game into an Americanized version would just ruin its soul. "Why play ddakji in the US?" "Stop making everything American!"-the comments are savage. It's like when your favorite Bollywood film gets a weird Hollywood remake and you're just cringing the whole time. Director Hwang Dong Hyuk , the mastermind behind the series, tried to cool things down. He made it super clear: Cate Blanchett's cameo was just for dramatic effect, not a teaser for a real US spin-off. He said, "There are no official plans for a spinoff or US version. The story is finished." So, for now, all those rumors about David Fincher directing a new Squid Game are just fan fiction. The Cast Is Just as Obsessed as We Are Wi Ha Joon couldn't stop talking about how much he loved the new characters this season, especially the villains and those with mysterious backstories. He even joked about wanting to play childhood games like "Red Light, Green Light" and "Gonggi" (the Korean version of five stones) if he ever got to join an American version. That's like Ranveer Singh saying he'd crush at kabaddi if Squid Game ever came to Mumbai! The cast's reactions are honestly super relatable-when even the actors are fangirling over Cate Blanchett, you know it's a big deal. Why This Finale Hit Different for Youth Let's be real: Squid Game is basically the K-drama version of all those intense game shows we grew up watching, just with way higher stakes (and, okay, a lot more blood). Seeing a global star like Cate Blanchett join the chaos makes it feel like anything's possible. But it also hits a nerve-nobody wants to see their favorite desi or Korean stories get watered down by Hollywood just for the sake of it. Still, there's something super cool about how a show about childhood games, survival, and fighting the system can connect people from Seoul to Surat. Whether or not we ever see a US Squid Game, this finale proved that a good story can break all the borders-and maybe, just maybe, make us dream a little bigger. And hey, if they ever do a Mumbai version, you know we'll be there, ready to slap down some paise for a game of lagori.
