'Doctor Strange 2' dominates S. Korean box office on Children's Day

Hollywood blockbuster "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" garnered a 2 1/2-year high of over 1 million moviegoers on Children's Day, data showed Friday.

Marvel Studios' latest superhero movie drew 1.06 million viewers on Thursday alone, accounting for 82.5 percent of the day's total ticket sales at local theaters, according to the data from the Korean Film Council.

It is the first time that a flick has topped the 1 million mark in attendance on one day since Nov. 30, 2019, when Disney's "Frozen 2" attracted 1.17 million people on its 10th day of release.

For more than two years, no films have repeated the feat due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Doctor Strange 2," released on Wednesday, has dominated Korean cinemas before its premiere, with its presale tickets reaching more than 900,000. It also posted the highest first-day record of 715,000 attendees on its opening day.

The American animated crime comedy "The Bad Guys" came in a distant second with 115,000 people and the Japanese animation "Butt Detective the Movie: the Secret of Souffle Island" placed third with 62,000.

Thanks to the strong performance of "Doctor Strange 2," a total of 1.3 million people went to theaters Thursday, marking the highest daily score since Jan. 26, 2020, amid the four-day Lunar New Year's holiday before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. (Yonhap)