Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Comedy film 'Samjin Company' floats to top of box office
A scene from “Samjin Company English Class,” which topped the local weekend box office. Courtesy of Lotte Entertainment
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
The comedy film “Samjin Company English Class” has topped the local box office for six consecutive days since its release on Oct. 21.
The film garnered about 400,000 ticket sales as of Monday, accumulating 3.4 billion won ($3 million). It landed on top with about 37,000 ticket sales on its opening day, taking 353 million won ($313,000).
Directed and written by Lee Jong-pil, known for directing the 2015 period film “The Sound of a Flower,” the film revolves around three women ― Ja-young (Ko Ah-sung), Yoo-na (Esom), and Bo-ram (Park Hye-soo) ― working at the same company in the 1990s.
The three join the company's English class for better promotion chances. But the study group takes on another purpose after they uncover corruption within the company.
But the overall movie industry is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, as many distributors are putting a pause on releasing films and more people avoid going to theaters.
Movie ticket sales for October, as of Monday, totaled about 4 million which is less than one-third sales from the same month last year ― about 15 million ― when “Joker” and “Crazy Romance” screened.