'The Wailing' tops online box office

A scene from “The Wailing”

By Park Jin-hai

“The Wailing,” the Korean horror thriller that won acclaim from audiences at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has also dominated the online box office, according to data from Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Wednesday.

The movie, directed by Na Hong-jin, ranked at the top of KOFIC’s new weekly online box office list between June 20 and June 26, based on data collected by three major IPTV and digital cable channels.

Na’s film has attracted over 6.87 million viewers since its May 11 release, topping the list of the months’ most-viewed films. Since the movie began its IPTV service on June 22, its popularity has been carried to the small screen as well.

Disney's animated hit “Zootopia” took second place. The animated movie attracted 4.7 million viewers at the local box office.

Noticeable was that some movies, including “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” “Gods of Egypt” and ““The Huntsman: Winter's War,” did better when they were on TV than at theaters.

“13 Hours,” which was released on March 3 and ended up drawing just 146,000 viewers at the box office, has been ranked third on the online box office.