Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie thriller Colony held firm at the top of the South Korean box office for a third consecutive weekend, earning $4 million from 603,868 admissions June 5–7 to push its three-week domestic total to $32.6 million from nearly 4.73 million tickets sold.
The film opened to a spectacular $9.4 million in its first weekend, capturing more than 71% of the total market and ranking among the top ten releases globally that frame. Its staying power has been equally impressive: Colony reached the three-million-admission mark on its tenth day of release, faster than The King’s Warden — this year’s domestic box office champion with $108 million — required to hit that same milestone.
The film, set inside a quarantined shopping mall, follows survivors contending with an unknown outbreak and an infected population that evolves with unsettling adaptability. It stars Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Shin-rok, Shin Hyun-been, and Go Soo. For Yeon, best known internationally for Train to Busan, Colony marks a return to the zombie genre that made his name — this time with a reported budget of roughly $12 million and the backing of Showbox, the distributor also behind The King’s Warden.
The success of Colony fits within a broader surge for Korean cinema in 2026, with six of the top ten domestic grossers this year being local productions.
Debuting in second place, comedy Wild Sing earned $2 million from 321,188 admissions in its opening weekend for a cumulative $3.4 million. Directed by Son Jae-gon, the film centers on Triangle, a once-dominant three-member group that disbanded after an unexpected incident, with the surviving members reuniting two decades later for a chaotic final shot at the spotlight. As part of its marketing campaign, the production released an actual song performed by the fictional group — an unusually committed promotional move that generated social media attention ahead of release. The film stars Gang Dong-won alongside Uhm Tae-goo and Park Ji-hyun, with Gang having chosen the project himself — a notable decision for an actor who rarely gravitates toward straight comedy.
Backrooms placed third with $1.3 million for a $5.5 million cumulative, while the Michael Jackson biopic Michael held fourth with $433,526, bringing its South Korean total to $11 million. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which crossed $1 billion globally this week, added $72,680 to reach $10.3 million domestically. The overall weekend market came in at $9.1 million, down from $11.9 million the prior frame.
