Audiences rush to theaters for ‘Roaring Currents’

The Korean film “Roaring Currents” has been breaking records at the local box office since opening Wednesday.

According to the Korean Film Council, the movie had attracted more than 4.7 million viewers by Sunday. It smashed through the four million mark just five days after opening, the fastest record among any Korean movie.

“Roaring” also garnered the highest audience numbers on a weekday - on Friday, it brought more than 866,000 people to the cinema. And by selling more than 1.2 million tickets on Sunday, it attracted the largest audience numbers on a single day to date.

The film accounted for 65.7 percent of ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, pushing “How To Train Your Dragon 2” to No. 2 at the weekend box office. The Hollywood animation got a mere 11.5 percent of the ticket share and made around 4.7 billion won ($4.5 million).

“Kundo: Age of the Rampant,” starring Ha Jung-woo and Kang Don-won, came in third, bringing in little more than 515,000 viewers.

The new Hollywood action movie “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which opened here on Thursday, was the fourth-most popular choice for moviegoers. Another animation film, “Turkey,” released on the same day, ranked fifth with 45,855 ticket sales.

BY LEE SUN-MIN [summerlee@joongang.co.kr]