'Spider-Man' smashes S. Korea box office in its 1st week

"Spider-Man: No Way Home," Marvel's latest Spider-Man series film, is smashing the South Korean box office to become the most-watched movie in the first week since the pandemic, data showed Monday.

The blockbuster attracted 1.74 million people from Friday-Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to 2.27 million in the five days following its release, according to the data by the Korea Film Council.

It is the largest five-day record by a film released since the COVID-19 pandemic started early last year, outnumbering the No. 1 hit "Deliver Us From Evil" (2020) and "Peninsula" (2020) with 2.02 million and 1.8 million last year, respectively.

Since its premier last Wednesday, the latest Spider-Man movie has been breaking pandemic-era records in South Korea, including the best opening-day score of 640,000.

Starring Tom Holland, "Spider-Man" tells the story of Peter Parker's adventure after Spider-Man's identity is revealed.

Disney's musical animated film "Encanto" finished second with 23,000 tickets sold over the weekend, followed by the South Korean romantic comedy "Nothing Serious" and the crime action film "Spiritwalker."

Thanks to the stellar performance by "Spider-Man," a total of 1.83 million people went to theaters over the Friday-Sunday period, up sharply from 388,000 from a week earlier.

The three-day figure marked the largest since the pandemic, beating the previous record of 1.8 million in August last year led by "Deliver Us From Evil." (Yonhap)