Korean docu film tops box office over Hollywood blockbusters

A South Korean documentary film about love and separation by death of an elderly couple topped the latest daily box-office chart, beating big-budget Hollywood films, a box-office tracker said Friday.

"My Love, Don't Cross That River" hit the record, collecting 65,613 moviegoers in 465 theaters across the country on Thursday, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). The film's accumulated number of attendance was 420,120.

Released on Nov. 27, the film by director Ji Mo-young became the first local indie film to draw 100,000 viewers in seven days after release. The film then exceeded the 200,000 and 300,000 marks, respectively, on the 11th and 13th day of opening. 

For indie films, the attendance number of 100,000 is comparable to 10 million for commercial films and thus means a huge box-office success.  

The strength of the documentary dealt a blow to popular Hollywood blockbusters that have so far dominated local movie charts.

"Interstellar," a sci-fi epic by Christopher Nolan that attracted more than 9 million audiences, dropped to the No. 3 spot in the daily chart and "Exodus: Gods and Kings" to the second place. They added only 50,173 and 60,350 in attendance that day. (Yonhap)