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| "Secretly Greatly," an action-comedy starring teenage heartthrob Kim Soo-hyun, is on pace to become one of the highest grossing Korean movies ever, at least after its first week. / Korea Times |
By Yun Suh-young
Filmmakers mostly tailor their products and marketing efforts to moviegoers in their 30s and 40s, who are considered the main sources of consumption in cultural products.
However, the massive success of "Secretly Greatly," an action-comedy starring heartthrob Kim Soo-hyun, raises the question whether the industry has been underestimated the economic power tied to teenagers in non-children's movies. While they might not often spend their own money to buy the tickets, they do have the talent to nag their parents until they do so.
"Secretly" is already one of the most successful works in a boom year for Korean films, topping the box office since its release last Wednesday and setting new audience records for the opening week.
The movie sold nearly half a million tickets on its first day and exceeded 3.4 million in just five days, representing a faster pace than any other Korean movie. The audience at theaters seems to be predominantly teenage girls and their parents.
According to a survey conducted by online ticket seller Max Movie, 45 percent of the over-30 customers who bought tickets for "Secretly" online said they are going because of their children. And more than 80 percent of them said their children were daughters. Many parents were also buying the tickets for their daughters but had no intention of sitting through "Secretly" with them. For most online purchases, it was the father who was typing in his credit card numbers.
To put it simply, the commercial power of "Secretly" relies on "daddy's girls" and their affection for Kim, a baby-faced television star who appears ubiquitously in television commercials and print advertisements.
"What can be seen from the survey is that young girls wield power as consumers with their ability to persuade their fathers to spend. This seems to be especially the case with Secretly because of the appearance of Kim Soo-hyun," said Kim Hyung-ho, an official at Max Movie.
"Secretly" is currently topping the charts on Internet portal Naver and Max Movie with 66 percent and 62 percent reservation rates, respectively.
The movie's success defies critics, whose reviews were underwhelming. According to Naver, half of the country's movie critics and journalists publishing on mainstream media outlets gave the movie low ratings. Predictably, the audience was much more forgiving, giving the movie 8 points out of 10.
The movie is about three North Korean spies who are dispatched to Korea on a mission to disguise themselves as a fool, a rock star wannabe and a high school student to monitor South Koreans and even their colleagues.
The three main male actors in the movie (Kim Soo-hyun, Park Ki-woong and Lee Hyun-woo) are all young, handsome with hunky physiques that may have made it worth watching for young female viewers, despite a few gruesome and violent fight scenes.
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