Haeundae Set to Top 7 Million Viewers

Ticket sales for ``Haeundae,'' a mega-hit disaster movie, are expected to surpass 7 million Sunday.

The big-budget action film, portraying a fictional tsunami that hits a famous beach in South Korea's southern port city of Busan, drew about 6.8 million viewers as of Saturday.

``About 300,000 on weekdays and 500,000 on weekends watch the blockbuster. If the current pace continues, the number of viewers is certain to top 7 million Sunday,'' an official from CJ Entertainment, the movie's distribution company, said.

It will have taken 19 days for ``Haeundae'' to break the 7-million mark if it surpasses the mark on Sunday.

The film community is looking forward to seeing the movie top 10 million by the end of this month.

"Haeundae," directed by Yoon Je-kyoon, is a local take on the classic Hollywood disaster formula, starring several big names such as Seol Gyung-gu, Ha Ji-won, Park Joong-hoon and Eom Jung-wha.

South Korean films, which have been performing well this summer despite a deluge of Hollywood blockbusters, saw their worst sales figures in eight years last year, falling by more than 20 percent from the previous year.