<i>King and the Clown</i> Retires After Hit Run

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Cinema Service, the film distribution company for domestic mega-hit King and the Clown announced that April 18th, 2006 would be the last day of screening for the film. The Chosun period drama about a mad king and his court jester made history last month when it smashed all previous box-office records, ousting Korean War pic Taegukgi, to become the top grossing Korean film of all-time. Cinema Service said that the final recorded numbers at the end of its nearly 4-month run was 12,301,289 ticket sales including 3,659,525 in Seoul. While a number of independent cinemas will continue to run the film, the distribution company said that it will consider the number of tickets sold by April 18th to be the final official figure. King and the Clown ranks as a cinema milestone in that it lacked the star-power and high production budget of previous domestic hits like Taegukgi, Silmido, and Friend, and yet managed to overtake all three films. It also dealt with subject matter still held to be taboo in Koran society, namely, homosexuality. The film attracted 1 million viewers during its opening week and grew into a runaway hit. Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC)

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