[Sportschosun Reporter Cho Yoon-sun] Actors Lee Jung-eun and Gong Hyo-jin expressed disappointment over the limited screening opportunities for the film "The Journey to Gyeongju."
On the 12th, Lee Jung-eun posted a theater's screening schedule for the previous day on her social media, along with the message, "Getting a theater slot for a film is like reaching for the stars."
The theater's schedule for the 11th showed that the foreign films "The Odyssey" and "Obsession" were allocated 30 and 12 screenings, respectively. By contrast, the Korean film "The Journey to Gyeongju," starring Lee Jung-eun, was screened only twice.
Gong Hyo-jin, who also appears in "The Journey to Gyeongju," commented, "It must be hard to see it even if you want to. I'm sad, Mom," expressing her disappointment.
Foreign films also clearly dominated theaters. According to the Korean Film Council's (KOFIC) Korean Box Office Information System (KOBIS), "The Odyssey" was screened 4,592 times across 1,537 screens nationwide on the 11th. It ranked first among all films that day in both screen share and screening share.
On the same day, "Obsession" was screened 1,945 times across 776 screens. Combined, the two foreign films accounted for 48.7% of all screenings.
By contrast, "The Journey to Gyeongju" was screened 603 times across 419 screens. Its screening share was 4.5%, meaning the two foreign films' combined share was approximately 10.8 times higher.
The gap widened further on the 12th, a weekend day. "The Odyssey" was screened 5,242 times across 1,648 screens, while "Obsession" was shown 2,433 times across 845 screens, with both films expanding their presence from the previous day.
Meanwhile, "The Journey to Gyeongju" was shown 537 times across 391 screens, and its screening share fell to 3.6%. With both the number of screens and screenings declining over the weekend, when audiences typically flock to theaters, opportunities to see the film actually decreased.
Despite its relatively limited number of screenings, "The Journey to Gyeongju" ranked first at the Korean box office for two consecutive weeks. After opening at No. 3 overall on its first day, it maintained the highest box-office ranking among Korean films on the strength of word of mouth. This has added weight to Lee Jung-eun and Gong Hyo-jin's disappointment.
Released on the 26th of last month, "The Journey to Gyeongju" is a family revenge drama about four women who, after waiting eight years for their youngest daughter, Gyeongju, who never returned from a school trip, embark on a deadly journey. The film was directed by Kim Mi-zo and stars Lee Jung-eun, Gong Hyo-jin, Park So-dam, Lee Yeon, and Byun Yo-han.
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
