Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic Noah opened early in South Korea and posted a strong debut, accruing 1.13 million viewers during its first four days in theaters. Starring Russell Crowe, Emma Watson and Jennifer Connelly, Noah is a big budget retelling of the story of Noah’s ark.

 

Placing second on the weekend chart following a 25% drop was the local drama Thread of Lies, starring KO Ah-sung, which added 333,544 viewers and has now eclipsed the one million viewer mark. In recent weeks local films have had a hard time going up against genre fare from Hollywood such as Non-Stop, which placed third over the weekend and has amassed two million admissions to date, and 300: Rise of an Empire, which was fourth for the weekend and is now over 1.5 million admissions.

 

Aronosky’s film is performing on par with the hit Gravity, which went over the three million admissions mark last year. Korean viewers have been to consume Hollywood’s spectacle-driven tentpoles but one can also assume that the country’s large Christian base may have had something to do with the film’s success. Noah will be released in its native United States and 20 other markets on March 28th.