'A Violent Prosecutor' tops holiday box office

Moviegoers still complain of slim choices at multiplex cinemas

By Baek Byung-yeul

The comedy-action flick “A Violent Prosecutor” came out victorious at this year’s Lunar New Year long weekend box office, selling more than 4.7 million tickets during the five-day holiday period.

According to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) on Thursday, A Violent Prosecutor surpassed the 6 million tickets mark Wednesday as 930,815 people watched the film at 1,778 screens on the last day of the holiday.

Thanks to brisk ticket sales, 6,375,960 people have watched the film since its release on Feb. 3. The record is only a day behind the 2014 historical drama “The Admiral: Roaring Currents,” which claims the current box office record, surpassing the 6 million milestone in just seven days.

Along with “Kung Fu Panda 3,” A Violent Prosecutor was expected to dominate the box office during the holidays as the advance ticket reservations were the highest, accounting for 77 percent of the total.

Director Lee Il-hyung’s debut film revolves around prosecutor Byeon Jae-uk (actor Hwang Jung-min), who is framed for the murder of a suspect and imprisoned. The prosecutor meets nimble-witted fraudster Han Chi-won (Kang Dong-won) in prison and plots to clear his name.

However, moviegoers have criticized the lack of choices at the main multiplexes. Given that the country has 2,489 movie screens according to the KOFIC data, more than 70 percent of screens were playing the same film.

“I went to a theater to watch a film during the holiday, but had no choice but to watch A Violent Prosecutor as almost every time slot was filled with the film,” said 32-year-old Seoulite Kim Jong-ho.

Another netizen “Ultr***” said “I was going to watch director Todd Haynes’ Carol, but I couldn’t find it in a theater at a time when I was available as only very few screens were showing it in early morning or late at night.”

Last year, the Hollywood film “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was also embroiled in controversy for playing on more than 1,800 screens at the same time.