Chapter 158
On opening day, the planning team looked like a battlefield from early morning.
Everyone’s fingers flew across their keyboards as they checked real-time reservation rates and audience reactions.
Advance reservations had already reached 800,000, putting Kingdom of Crime at number one in Korean film history for pre-release ticket sales.
I kept moving between the film and drama teams, crossing partition after partition to check the live numbers.
“Team Leader, the morning score is in!”
One of the film-team members spoke with a flushed face.
“How is it?”
Ju Hanyoung asked immediately.
“380,000.”
“What about Ocean Storm?”
This time, I asked.
“They’re neck and neck right now, but Ocean Storm is ahead by about thirty thousand.”
Excited reactions broke out across the office.
The fact that we were even competing evenly with a massive Hollywood blockbuster was practically a miracle.
“What’s the online response like?”
Stories from yesterday’s VIP screening and reviews from people who had watched the morning screenings were already spreading online.
Joo Youngjae quickly turned his monitor toward me.
[↳ Just watched Kingdom of Crime. No exaggeration, this is the best movie I’ve seen this year, maybe in the last several years. It deserves ten Palme d’Ors.]
[↳ I just watched Kingdom of Crime with my girlfriend. I’m bringing my parents this weekend and watching it again.]
[↳ Came to watch Ocean Storm but the times didn’t work, so I watched Kingdom of Crime instead. Holy shit. It was insanely good! I would’ve regretted watching Ocean Storm.]
“The praise is overwhelming.”
Joo Youngjae continued.
“The ratings are extremely high too.”
“Most reactions say it’s ‘fun,’ and a lot of people are also calling it ‘fresh.’”
I nodded.
“Are there a lot of articles about the Ocean Storm cast coming to Korea?”
“Yes.”
“They’re starting stage greetings at theaters today.”
Ju Hanyoung looked worried.
“We don’t start our stage greetings until the weekend.”
“Surely the gap won’t widen too much in just a day or two, right?”
Just then, the film-team member who had reported the morning score suddenly spoke in shock.
“Team Leader, look at this.”
“What is it?”
Ju Hanyoung turned toward them.
“We... just got full sellouts for every Saturday and Sunday screening in Seoul, Ilsan, and Bundang.”
For a moment, I doubted my ears.
Every seat sold out?
Of course, I had worked on films that sold out screenings before.
But I had never seen every weekend screening across all of Seoul sell out this quickly.
While I was still staring blankly...
“Holy crap!”
“Wooooow! Team Leader, this means we’re a huge hit, right?!”
The team members shot to their feet, cheering.
“Team Leader, unless a ridiculous number of people suddenly cancel all at once, we’re guaranteed number one at the box office for opening weekend!”
“Team Leader Min... no, CEO Min. Congratulations. Hahaha.”
I was still too stunned to properly react.
Then Kang Jooyoung suddenly said,
“Team Leader, look at this.”
[↳ Wow, I tried to reserve Kingdom of Crime just now, and everything through Sunday is sold out.]
[↳ I’m in Busan. Haeundae is already completely sold out too. Seomyeon still has some seats, though. Do I really have to go all the way there?]
[↳ Saturday 3 p.m. Hongdae, two tickets, 30,000 won. Anyone want them?]
[↳ WTF. People are still scalping tickets?]
[↳ Insane. You’re charging double for a 7,000-won movie ticket? I’m reporting you to cybercrime.]
“What?”
I stared at the comments.
“Are people seriously talking about scalped tickets now?!”
Time passed.
Late at night on the third day after release, I finally returned home and collapsed onto my bed.
I had barely slept since the VIP screening.
Over the opening weekend, Director Song Jaehyun and the actors had traveled to major theaters around the country for stage greetings.
I had accompanied them.
Gangnam.
Hongdae.
Yongsan.
Ilsan.
Busan.
Daegu.
Everywhere we went, the theaters were packed.
The audience reactions were explosive.
At this rate...
I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling.
Ten million might really be possible.
Just then, my phone rang.
It was Baek Seonghan.
“Yes, PD Baek.”
“CEO Min, you weren’t sleeping already, were you?”
“No. What’s going on this late?”
“We just passed 1.5 million cumulative admissions on day three!”
His voice was trembling with excitement.
“1.5 million?”
“Yeah.”
“At this pace, three million in the first week is easy.”
“And five million in the second week might even be possible!”
After ending the call, I stared blankly at the ceiling for a long time.
Ha... 1.5 million.
Director Park Junbeom’s film Red Moon, Blue Sea, which had passed ten million admissions in three months, had recorded 1.5 million in its entire first week.
But Kingdom of Crime had already broken that number in only three days.
This really is insane.
By the second week, things accelerated even further.
Ocean Storm saw its audience numbers fall sharply as it entered week two.
But Kingdom of Crime did the opposite.
Word of mouth spread, and even more people began coming to theaters.
“Team Leader Min!”
Ju Hanyoung shouted excitedly.
“We just passed five million cumulative admissions!”
“Five million in only two weeks...”
“Is this real?”
The team members all chimed in, unable to believe it.
I checked the live box-office numbers.
Daily admissions were still above three hundred thousand.
At this pace...
I quickly calculated.
Seven million in week three.
Nine million in week four.
And then... ten million.
The numbers made it possible to reach ten million admissions in just over a month.
