Actor Song Joong-ki has failed to break the cycle of slump in box office sales this time around. The 15 billion won blockbuster ‘Bogota: Land of Last Chance’ (Bogota) in which he starred has been a virtual box office flop along with harsh reviews. It seems that Song Joong-ki‘s strength, which has boasted a high batting average in dramas, is not working on the big screen.

‘Bogota’, which tells the story of a man’s survival as he heads to Bogota, Colombia with new hope right after the IMF crisis, was released in second place on the 31st of last month despite high expectations for Song Joong-ki‘s leading role, but has failed to make any dents. ‘Harbin’, which was released a week earlier and stars Hyun Bin, has maintained its number one spot at the box office for 22 days, whereas ‘Bogota’ has plummeted to sixth place in just ten days. As of the 14th, the accumulated number of viewers is 400,000, making it virtually impossible to break even (3 million).

The audience response is even more lukewarm than the number of viewers. Since the first day of release, the CJ CGV actual viewing rating Golden Egg Index has fallen below 90%, and is currently recording the lowest score of 79% among films showing. On Watchapedia, a platform specializing in movie ratings, it received a disappointing score of 2.3 out of 5. Audiences are responding with comments such as, “The characters’ actions are not convincing,” “It’s all show,” and “They failed to utilize the location properly.”

As a result, Song Joong-ki has suffered painful failures in almost every movie he has starred in since “A Werewolf Boy” in 2012. ‘Battleship Island’, which aimed to surpass 10 million in 2017, failed to break even (8 million) with only 6.59 million viewers, and ‘The Hwaran’, which was produced with a relatively small budget in 2023, only managed to attract a quarter of the break-even point (1 million). Netflix films ‘Space Sweepers’, which was released in 2021, and ‘Ro Ki-wan’, which was released last year, also received poor reviews.

Meanwhile, entertainment content that recent movie promoters such as ‘The Seasons’, ‘Please Take Care of My Refrigerator’, and ‘Salon Drip’ have been garnering attention with ‘Lovebird’ Song Joong-ki bragging about his wife one after another, giving the atmosphere a reversed tableau. Some even say that Song Joong-ki appears on variety shows to promote his wife rather than his movie. Song Joong-ki married British actress Katie Saunders in 2023 and they have two children.

Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com