‘Citizen of a Kind’ tops box office on opening weekend
“Citizen of a Kind” topped the local box office for five consecutive days following a successful weekend after opening in theaters on Wednesday.
The comedy crime flick achieved about 300,000 ticket sales over the weekend, surpassing a total of 500,000 ticket sales amounting to 4.78 billion won ($3.58 million) since its release.
Based on a true story, newcomer Park Young-joo’s directorial debut film revolves around an ordinary single mom, Deok-hee (Ra Mi-ran), who just lost her laundromat to a fire. Desperate for money, she accepts a bank offer for a generous loan through a phone call, which turns out to be a voice phishing scam.
After losing her money to the scam, she gets another call from Jae-min (Gong), the scammer who swindled her money. He offers a tip about the criminal cartel for a phishing scam and asks her to help get him out of the shady organization. Deok-hee decides to take down the cartel’s mastermind herself, flying to China with her friends.
The action blockbuster “Alienoid: The Return to the Future” secured the second position at the weekend box office, despite generating only around 100,000 ticket sales.
The sequel to the 2022 fantasy film “Alienoid,” featuring a star-studded cast, debuted at the top of the charts on Jan. 10, amassing approximately 94,000 ticket sales. It maintained its leading position for 15 consecutive days before relinquishing the top spot to “Citizen of a Kind” and slipping to second place.
The film has accumulated a total of 1.3 million ticket sales, grossing 12.64 billion won.
Under the direction of filmmaker Choi Dong-hoon, renowned for his success with films like “Tazza: The High Rollers” (2006) and “The Thieves” (2012), the two-part film revolves around an android named Guard (played by Kim Woo-bin) from the year 2022. Guard is tasked with capturing escaped alien criminals, and the narrative further explores his relationship with his adopted daughter, Lee Ahn (played by Kim Tae-ri).
When a time portal opens, Guard and Lee travel to the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392), crossing paths with Taoist magicians - played by Ryu Jun-yeol, Jo Woo-jin and Yum Jung-ah - from that era. To save the world from aliens, they must seize a legendary divine sword.
Disney’s animation “Wish” took the third spot with 59,000 ticket sales over the weekend. The fantasy musical flick, which debuted on Jan. 3, achieved a total of about 1.34 million ticket sales worth 12.77 billion won.