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Sci-fi epic ‘Interstellar’ becomes sensation in S. Korea

November 17, 2014

Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), right, and his 10-year-old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) in a scene from “Interstellar”
/ Courtesy of Warner Bros. Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) — The Hollywood film “Interstellar” has become a sensation in South Korean movie theaters and is likely to soon surpass the 5 million mark in attendance, data showed Monday.

The sci-fi epic by Christopher Nolan topped the weekend box office ranking for the second time in a row on Sunday, drawing 4.8 million viewers just 10 days after it opened on Nov. 6, according to the data by the Korean Film Council.

This marks a long-awaited rebound for foreign films since “Transformer: Age of Extinction” opened in June. Non-Korean films have performed poorly due to the popularity of Korean films such as “Roaring Currents,” “The Pirates” and “Kundo: Age of the Rampant.”

“Interstellar,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts, attracted 220,000 moviegoers on its opening day and surpassed the 1 million mark on its third day and 3 million on its eighth day.

It is highly expected to hit the 5 million milestone on Monday, the 12th day, given its current speed of drawing viewers on business days.

The film features a team of space travelers who travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet.

Jeong Ji-wook, a Korean movie critic, says the space saga well mixed its scientific content with oriental sentiment like “Chuang Tzu’s dream” and a family code.

Industry experts say the film will be able to easily reach the 7 to 8 million milestone in the country because there is no major competitor except “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” a Hollywood movie set to open in local theaters this week.