'Minari' dominates box office

The Golden Globe-winning drama film “Minari” / Courtesy of Pan Cinema

By Dong Sun-hwa

The Golden Globe-winning drama film “Minari” has reigned atop the local box office chart for 18-consecutive days as of Saturday, drawing more than 650,000 moviegoers in total.

According to the Korean Film Council, “Minari” sold about 60,000 tickets on Saturday, outperforming the Japanese animated movie, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie ― Mugen Train” (38,856), and Disney's newest release, “Raya and the Last Dragon” (21,779). The thriller, “The Mauritanian” (10,139), and the animated film, “Soul” (6,900), ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

Since its opening here on March 3, “Minari” has accumulated about 5.9 billion won ($5.2 million) in gross sales.

“Minari,” a semi-autobiographical movie by Korean-American director Lee Issac Chung, revolves around a Korean immigrant family who sets up a farm in rural Arkansas in the 1980s to pursue the American dream. Earlier in March, it won a Golden Globe for the best foreign-language film, which was given to auteur Bong Joon-ho's black-comedy “Parasite” in 2020.

The film also earned Oscar nominations in six categories ― best picture, best directing, best original screenplay, best actor, best score and best supporting actress. Actress Youn Yuh-jung ― who played the grandmother of the immigrant family ― became the first Korean to be nominated for an acting category at the awards. Korean American actor Steven Yeun, who played the father, became the first Asian American nominee in the lead actor category.

Meanwhile, theaters in Korea are experiencing a dramatic decline in patrons due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. In February, the total number of theatergoers stood at 3.1 million, down 57.8 percent from the same period last year. But it is up 74 percent from January.