Hur Jin-ho’s historical thriller The Assassin(s) took the top spot at the South Korean box office over the Chuseok holiday. It sold 1.55 million tickets and grossed $11.3 million in its first five days, according to the Korean Film Council.
The film opened September 23 and has led the daily chart since. Across the three-day holiday weekend, September 25 to 27, it sold 1.12 million tickets on 1,532 screens and captured 40.9 percent of the market. Saturday alone brought in 432,341 viewers.
The story reconstructs the August 15, 1974 shooting at a National Liberation Day ceremony, where a gunman aimed at President Park Chung-hee and killed First Lady Yuk Young-soo. Yoo Hae-jin plays a senior detective, Park Hae-il a veteran newspaper journalist and Lee Min-ho a rookie reporter. The trio chases missing ballistic evidence that contradicts the official lone-gunman verdict, and their careers and safety come under threat. Park Jeong-min plays the accused shooter. Jung Woo-sung plays a conglomerate chairman and the older brother of Lee’s character, and Shim Eun-kyung and Oh Jung-se have supporting turns.
Demand built before the first screening. The film led advance ticket sales for eight straight days as of Sunday morning, a run that started before release and that no rival Chuseok title interrupted. It arrived fresh from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and early audience reaction has singled out its tight pacing and ensemble performances.
The competition was crowded by design. Local distributors clustered their big titles around the holiday to steer clear of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which has dominated Korean screens since its August 5 debut. Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, the casino crime sequel, ranked second with 663,140 admissions through Saturday. The Odyssey held third in its eighth weekend, adding $3.2 million and lifting its total to 11.78 million admissions, or about $96.3 million.
Warner Bros Korea’s The Intern, a local remake starring Choi Min-sik and Han So-hee, finished fourth and has earned $5.5 million since its September 16 opening. Lee Chang-dong’s Venice-winning Possible Love, a Netflix-backed release, debuted in fifth.
For Hur, best known for Christmas in August and One Fine Spring Day, the result marks a commercial breakthrough with a politically charged subject that still stirs debate in Korea.
