In Korea, Chuseok is one of the busiest holiday seasons for local movies. Last year,
THE OUTLAWS (2017) was the top-grossing movie of the season while previous winners include
The Age of Shadows (2016),
The Throne (2015),
Tazza-The Hidden Card (2014),
The Face Reader (2013), and
Masquerade (2012). The Chuseok holiday season this year, a time when family movies are most popular, saw the release of three local productions:
The Great Battle starring
ZO In-sung,
FENGSHUI starring
CHO Seung-woo and
THE NEGOTIATION starring
HYUN Bin and
SON Ye-jin. Who will be the final winner? The battle was expected to be ruthless, but the race ended quickly: since its opening day,
The Great Battle has kept the box office’s top spot while
FENGSHUI and
THE NEGOTIATION are still fiercely competing for the second spot. When released,
FENGSHUI attracted more viewers than its opponent, but
THE NEGOTIATION has now taken the lead in its second week of release. Although
THE SOUL-MATE was released a week after the other three movies, the comedy-drama is off to a good start. Compared to the 148,192 tickets
The Great Battle sold on its first day of release,
THE SOUL-MATE drew 169,966 moviegoers on its opening day. All the films released during the Chuseok holiday season have been rather successful but amid the Korean film industry slump of this year, it seems the race will soon end without any of them becoming a mega-hit.