The domestic animation ‘The Exorcist’ is lighting a fire in the hearts of viewers in their 30s and 40s.

‘The Exorcist’, adapted from the novel of the same name by author Lee Woo-hyuk, has emerged as a dark horse in the theaters. ‘The Exorcist’, which contains the story of exorcists with special abilities to fight evil, is a work based on a web novel serialized on the PC communication bulletin board of HiTel since 1993 and the best-selling genre novel in Korea with a whopping 10 million copies sold in single volume alone.

Domestic animation breaks the limit

According to the Integrated Computer Network for Movie Tickets on the 8th, ‘The Exorcist’ made a surprise appearance in 2nd place at the box office on the first day of its release, the 21st of last month, and is still attracting attention by maintaining its 3rd place at the box office to this day. It has surpassed even the Marvel hero blockbusters ‘Captain America: Brave New World’, and has attracted a cumulative audience of 338,301 as of the 7th. In the domestic animation market where most works are aimed at children, the success of ‘The Exorcist’, which targets adult audiences, is an unusual achievement.

In particular, despite being a work made with a low budget in a poor environment, it is being screened in the ScreenX format, which was considered the exclusive domain of blockbuster films, due to its splendid 3D graphics, sensational design, and dynamic action direction that are comparable to foreign animations.

It has also received high scores in various ratings, such as the CGV Golden Egg Index recording 96%, surpassing Director Bong Joon-ho‘s ‘Mickey 17’ (91%), as well as rave reviews from the audience. In addition, it is sold to 12 countries including North America, South America, Germany, and Taiwan, raising expectations for its overseas performance.

Support from the middle-aged and older generation… Even variety shows are coming out

At the center of the success of ‘The Exorcist’ are the middle-aged and older audiences who were crazy about the original novel in the 1990s. Analysis of CGV ticket reservation audiences also showed that 65% of ‘The Exorcist’ ticket reservation audiences were in their 30s and 40s, and 17% of the audience were in their 50s, which is rare for an animation. Accordingly, it is being compared to the Japanese animation ‘The First Slam Dunk’, which was released in 2023 and succeeded in the long run thanks to the strong support of audiences in their 30s and 40s who enjoyed the original comics as children.

Riding this wave, interest in the original novel has skyrocketed again, such as taking the number 1 spot in the weekly novel category on the e-book service Millie’s Library, and YouTube videos explaining the various settings and worldviews of the original novel that were not included in the animation are quickly gaining views.

Thanks to the popularity of the novel driven by the animation, Tving has even started producing a variety show with the concept of ‘The Exorcist Record’. Tving announced, “We plan to release the occult action adventure variety show ‘Shin: The Exorcist Record’ (tentative title) that borrows the worldview of the novel ‘The Exorcist Record in 2026.”

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.