Animation Minions: The Rise of Gru is 2nd, Top Gun: Maverick Surpassed 6.5 Million Viewers in Total

The first runner of the 4-way box office race in the summer of 2022, the SF fantasy blockbuster with a production cost of 33 billion won, Director Choi Donghoon's Alienoid Part 1 topped the box office on the weekend of its release. According to the Korean Box Office Information System (KOBIS) of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) on July 25, from July 22 (Fri) to 24 (Sun), Alienoid Part 1 ranked 1st with 632,032 audiences with 32.3% of sales. Alienoid Part 1, which was released on July 20, topped the list in the first week of its release, but with 913,272 viewers in total, it failed to mobilize 1 million viewers on the first weekend.

Alienoid Part 1 conveys fantastic imaginations of the past, modernity, fantasy, science fiction, Taoist wizards, and robots in the movie. Alienoid Part 1, deals with the adventures that take place at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty when the Taoist wizards trying to take the legendary sword and the figures chasing alien prisoners imprisoned in the human bodies in 2022 are connected through ‘the Door of Time.’

Ryu Junyeol, a Taoist wizard and troublemaker, Kim Taeri, a woman who shoots a ‘pistol’ in the Goryeo Dynasty, Kim Woobin, an alien manager in the future world, So Jisub, a detective chasing aliens, Yum Jungah and Jo Woojin, the best Taoist witch and wizard in Goryeo, Kim Euisung, a man with a mysterious mask, Lee Hanee, a future tracker, Shin Junggeun and Lee Sihoon, the mysterious cat duo, etc., a variety of actors transcending generations have been cast.

DreamWorks' popular animation, Minions: The Rise of Gru, which was released on the same day as Alienoid Part 1, followed closely and came in 2nd place. Its weekend audience is 600,400, with a gap of only 3,000 people from the top. The total audience of Minions: The Rise of Gru is 833,492, and it has a strong rival, Alienoid Part 1, but compared to the total audience of the 5th day of the release on July 29, 2015, when the previous episode Minions was released, the number was 1,024,155, similar to the 2nd episode. 

Thor: Love and Thunder, which started as the top on the opening weekend, fell to No. 2 with a sharp audience decrease of -66.4% compared to the previous week. Its weekend audience was 398,340 with 25% of sales. The total audience is 2,493,744. 

Top Gun: Maverick, which topped the list last week, fell to 3rd place due to the two new films, but it still has box office power. In the 5th week of its release, Top Gun: Maverick recorded 448,502 weekend audiences with 23% of sales, with a total audience of 6,501,901. Following this, Decision to Leave recorded 4th place with 1.5 million audiences in total over the weekend. 

Among the new films last week, the Japanese movie, It’s a Summer Film!, collected 5,492 viewers (0.3% of sales), ranking first in the independent and artistic film box office and 9th place in the overall box office. Meanwhile, the second episode of Director Kim Hanmin's ‘Yi Sunsin Trilogy,’ HANSAN: RISING DRAGON, which is set to be released on July 27, is ranked No. 10 at the weekend box office just for the preview. As of 9 a.m. on July 25, the pre-orders alone recorded about 150,000 tickets, recording the highest ticket sales.