In Korea, historic sea battle film Roaring Currents has hit 11 million admissions in record time and beaten Disney’s Frozen to the biggest box office of 2014 to date.

Roaring Currents has reached the 11 million milestone in Korea just 13 days after its release on July 30.

It has also surpassed Disney animation Frozen as the top hit of 2014 and become the 11th biggest hit of all time in Korea.

Directed by Kim Han-min, the local film stars Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) as the legendary Joseon dynasty admiral Yi Sun-sin, leading 12 ships to an unlikely victory against 330 invading ships from Japan.

Roaring Currents reached its score of 11 million twice as fast as local hits The Host and The Thieves, which ultimately took 13.01 million admissions and 12.98 million respectively.

CJ E&M handles local distribution as well as international sales.

In the US, CJ America released the film Aug 8 with the title The Admiral: Roaring Currents.

Korean box office

The film is followed at the weekend box office by Lotte Entertainment’s The Pirates, another seafaring adventure. Starring Kim Nam-gil and Son Ye-jin, it has recorded 1.8 million admissions since its Aug 6 release.

Also distributed by CJ E&M, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is in the number three spot. The film’s total since July 23 is 2.68 million admissions.

Guardians Of The Galaxy is at fourth place with a total of 1 million admissions since July 31.

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) today announced its July box office report with a total of 12.87 million admissions and KW155.6bn ($150.9m) - up 1.05 million and KW19.9bn year-on-year. Local films took a 51.5% market share.

With releases such as Showbox’s Kundo: The Age Of The Rampant and Roaring Currents, KOFIC called July the beginning of Korean films’ counter-attack after the first half of this year was dominated by foreign films.

Topics