Hyeri’s teen flick ‘Victory’ embroiled in ‘ticket hoarding’ rumor

Singer-turned-actor Hyeri’s latest teen cheerleading flick “Victory” was embroiled in a rumor that people related to the movie have hoarded tickets to increase sales, causing production firm Mind Mark to release a statement.

According to the Korea Film Council data, “Victory,” which opened in local theaters on Aug. 14, has topped the box office as of Thursday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 26,000 moviegoers watched the film, placing the movie at the top of the local box office. Its accumulated admissions reached 465,962.

It is not common to see a movie that opened a month ago to climb up the box office rank, and online communities have raised suspicion that people related to the movie may have hoarded tickets to inflate the movie’s performance.

Mindmark, the production firm behind “Victory,” released a statement Thursday in response to the speculations.

“None of the issue circulating online is true. We’ve been conducting some screenings by renting the whole cinema for certain groups and as part of events at some companies. As those screenings overlapped during the week, we’ve seen the number of admissions dramatically go up,” said Mindmark in a statement.

“Victory,” the country’s first-ever film about cheerleaders and helmed by Park Beom-soo (“Single in Seoul”), revolves around Pil-seon (Hyeri) and Mina (Park Se-wan) who form a high school cheerleading club to gain access to the dance room at school.

Along with Lee, actors Park Se-wan and Cho Ah-ram and six other actors star as a nine-member cheerleading group called Millennium Girls.