Thieves’ now 2nd-most watched film

“The Thieves” became the second-most watched film in the history of Korean cinema last week with more than 12.31 million moviegoers having watched the flick.

According to the distributor Show Box, the film featuring some of the hottest stars including Kim Soo-hyun, Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Hye-soo overtook “The King and the Clown” with an additional 10,000 views. The 2005 film had accumulated 12,302,831.

Directed by Choe Dong-hoon, the film is about a heist carried out by 10 Korean and Chinese thieves stealing a $20 million diamond necklace at a casino in Macau.

After its release on July 25, “Thieves” began breaking records across the board.

Just three days after the film opened, more than a million people had watched it; that number doubled the following day and tripled by day six.

To date, it has usurped the records set by some of the most popular films in Korea like “The Host” (2006) and “Silmido” (2003). Its distributor expects the film to take the No. 1 spot on the all time box-office list by replacing “Avatar” (2009), which had 13.3 million views.

By Carla Sunwoo