‘I, The Executioner’ Hits Box Office Milestone on Sixth Day of Release

Korean crime comedy action film “I The Executioner” has amassed more than $30 million of gross revenues on its sixth day of release, making it one of the fastest movies in local history to reach that mark.

Kobis, the cinema data service operated by the Korean Film Council, reported that the film had reached 3.71 million admissions and a gross haul of $27.2 million by the evening of Tuesday, its fifth full day in cinemas.

On Wednesday morning, the film’s distributor CJ ENM said that the film’s ticket sales total had surpassed 4 million by 9am local time. That would give an estimated box office total of $30 million, that will be confirmed by independent data later in the day.

CJ ENM has not disclosed a production budget for the title, but it said that with this level of business the film has now broken even. It is not clear whether that calculation is based solely on net Korean revenues flowing to the company as a distributor, or whether it also includes the value of international rights sales and the share of the theatrical revenues earned by sister company CJ-CGV, Korea’s largest exhibition chain.

Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, the film is a nine-years-later sequel to “Veteran,” a violent and comedic crime action film about a cop who takes on Korea’s class system. Known locally as “Veteran 2,” the sequel again stars Hwang Jung-min in the lead role, but this time he is on the trail of a series of vigilante killings and an obsessed colleague.

The film had its world premiere in a non-competitive slot in Cannes this year. And it recently benefitted from a gala screening at the Toronto festival.

While films conventionally release on Wednesdays in Korea, “I, The Executioner” was released on Friday last week. The shuffled timing reflects the impact of the Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving festivities, which give most workers in South Korea a five-day holiday (a weekend plus three days of public holiday, running Mon-Wed).

CJ ENM said that the theatrical launch of “I, The Executioner” was bigger than this year’s box office leader “Exhuma,” last year’s top-grossing title “12.12: The Day” and 2022’s “The Roundup,” the second film in a rival crime comedy franchise starring Don Lee. The company also reported that admissions were running at a faster rate than the 2015 original “Veteran.”