Despite the twists and turns experienced before its release, such as the drug use allegations against lead actor Yoo Ah-in, the movie ‘Match’ is doing well, maintaining its position at the top of the box office. With the actors‘ excellent acting and completeness receiving favorable reviews from audiences, it seems to have overcome even the ‘lead actor risk’.

According to the Integrated Computer Network for Movie Tickets on the 1st, ‘Match’, which rose to the top of the box office upon its release on the 26th of last month, has maintained its position at the top through the 31st, the 6th day of screening, attracting a cumulative audience of 759,246. With 700,000 moviegoers in its first week of release, it even surpassed the cumulative opening week audience count (604,875) of ‘Hitman 2’, the highest-grossing Korean film of 2025.

‘The Match’ is a film that has been released in theaters for the first time in four years since its crank-up in 2021 due to COVID-19 and the drug use of its lead actor Yoo Ah-in. Most of the films that were previously left in storage for years due to the aftermath of COVID-19 and were later released failed at the box office, so ‘The Match’ was also expected to have a bleak box office outlook.

However, with this ‘surprise box office success’, it is expected to follow in the footsteps of ‘Firefighter’, which attracted 3.85 million viewers last year and achieved unprecedented box office success as a ‘warehouse film’. ‘Match’ succeeded in selling secondary rights through OTT early before its release, and it is known that it only needs to attract 800,000 to 900,000 viewers, which is far less than the originally planned break-even point (1.8 million), so it is virtually certain to be a ‘profitable film’.

The biggest reason ‘Match’ was able to overcome various adversities is the acclaim for the acting of its leads Lee Byung-hun and Yoo Ah-in. In this film, based on a true story, Lee Byung-hun and Yoo Ah-in play the roles of ‘Baduk legend’ Cho Hun-hyun 9-dan and Cho Hun-hyun’s disciple and ‘Baduk prodigy’ Lee Chang-ho (Yoo Ah-in), respectively. The audience is unanimously praising Lee Byung-hun‘s excellent acting, who showed perfect synchronization with 9-dan Cho Hun-hyun and led the story from the center, and Yoo Ah-in’s synergy with his equally passionate acting. Thanks to this, the movie is maintaining a Golden Egg Index of 97% for the actual audience rating.

With positive reviews of Lee Byung-hun and Yoo Ah-in‘s acting skills, who was embroiled in controversy over drug use, there is a hopeful outlook for the release of Yoo Ah-in’s other leading role, the movie ‘High Five’. ‘High Five’, which finished filming in 2021, is a fantasy action film that depicts the story of five rookie heroes meeting those who covet their superpowers, and stars Yoo Ah-in, Ra Mi-ran, Lee Jae-in, Ahn Jae-hong, and Kim Hee-won.


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.