Song Hye-kyo‘s global star power has paid off. While the hit film ‘The Nuns’, starring Song Hye-kyo, is nearing its break-even point and is also gaining popularity overseas in countries such as Indonesia.

‘The Nuns’ was released on the 24th of last month, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, and has attracted a cumulative audience of 1,363,861 as of the 1st of this month (based on the integrated computer network for movie theater tickets). If this trend continues, it is expected to surpass the break-even point of 1.6 million this week. Despite being an occult horror genre with strong likes and dislikes, it attracted attention by successfully pulling together with the popular comic action genre ‘Hitman 2’ starring Kwon Sang-woo during the long Lunar New Year holidays.

‘The Nuns’, which garnered attention early on as Song Hye-kyo’s first film in 10 years since ‘My Palpitating Life’ in 2014, is a work that tells the story of nuns who embark on a forbidden ritual to save a boy possessed by a powerful evil spirit.

Although audience reviews of the film were somewhat mixed immediately after its release, there are evaluations that Song Hye-kyo‘s strong acting transformation, which is her first attempt at the occult genre since her debut, is leading the film’s box office success.

Director Jang Jae-hyun, who directed ‘The Priests’, the predecessor to ‘The Nuns’, also directed the film with Song Hye-kyo and co-star Jeon Yeo-bin. He praised the actresses‘ acting, saying, “I especially loved the scene where the two nuns are together at the ice cream shop. It felt like I was seeing real nuns like that in everyday life. It felt like it showed two very strong women.”

Thanks to the popularity of ‘immovable Hallyu star’ Song Hye-kyo, ‘The Nuns’, which was pre-sold to 160 countries overseas before its release, was a ‘hu hit’, especially in Indonesia. It set a record for the highest opening for a Korean film by attracting over 310,000 viewers in its first week of release, and surpassed 710,000 viewers in just one week. This is the second highest-grossing Korean film of all time in Indonesia, beating out Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’. Following ‘Pa-myo’, which was released last year and ranked first in Korean box office, it is continuing the popularity of K-occult films in Southeast Asian countries for the second consecutive year.

In addition, it ranked first in daily box office in Taiwan, the Philippines, etc., and it is scheduled to be released in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Laos (6th), Singapore, Malaysia (13th), Vietnam (21st), etc. to meet local audiences.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.