'The Roundup: Punishment' starts strong, drawing 820,000 on opening day

SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) -- Don Lee's action flick "The Roundup: Punishment" got off to a great start, attracting over 821,000 moviegoers on its opening day, data showed Thursday.

Released Wednesday, the movie dominated the local box-office chart, accounting for over 96 percent of tickets sold that day, marking the biggest opening day for the "Roundup" series.

The figure exceeded the performance of the previous installment, "The Roundup: No Way Out" (2023), which went on to achieve the 10-million admissions milestone.

The initial performance of the latest in the series suggests that the crime action movie has the potential to reach 10 million views, injecting new energy into the local film industry, which has been awaiting another major hit since "Exhuma."

As of Thursday morning, the film boasted a reservation rate of 94.1 percent, with advance ticket sales exceeding 724,000.

The film revolves around tenacious cop Ma Seok-do (played by Ma Dong-seok) as he tracks down a ruthless global drug kingpin, Baek Chang-ki (Kim Moo-yeol), and a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, Chang Dong-cheol (Lee Dong-hwi), who employs illegal online casinos for money laundering.

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr
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