Two animated films set milestones at S. Korean box office

With the award-winning drama "Minari" topping the South Korean box office for about 10 days, two animated films from Japan and the United States have set milestones in the virus-hit film industry, data showed Monday.

"Minari," a story about a Korean immigrant family who settles in rural Arkansas to pursue its American dream, garnered 130,000 people over the Friday-Sunday period, according to the data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

The semiautobiographical film of Korean-American director Lee Isaac Chung has retained the top position since its Korean release on March 3, with a total audience of 496,000. It won the best foreign language prize at this year's Golden Globe Awards and is expected to get multiple nominations for the upcoming Oscars.

The Japanese animation "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train" came in next with 93,000 attendees over the three-day period and Disney's fantasy "Raya and the Last Dragon" placed third with 69,000 people.

"Demon Slayer," recording a cumulative 1.19 million attendees as of Sunday, became the sixth most-viewed Japanese flick in South Korea, following "Your Name" (2016), "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004), "Spirited Away" (2001), "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" (2008) and "Love Letter" (1995).

Disney-Pixar's fantasy drama "Soul" added 22,000 moviegoers for the weekend to hit 2 million nearly two months after its release on Jan. 20.

It is the first time in about eight months that a film has reached the 2 million threshold at the South Korean box office since the homegrown crime thriller "Deliver Us From Evil" posted 4.3 million in August last year.

"Soul" also became the first foreign film to attract more than 2 million filmgoers in South Korea since Disney's "Frozen 2" (2019) attracted 13.7 million people. Christopher Nolan's action blockbuster "Tenet" (2020) wrapped up its Korean run with 1.99 million. (Yonhap)