'The Roundup' franchise tops 30 million tickets

Posters of ″The Roundup: No Way Out″ are hung up at a cinema in central Seoul on June 6. [YONHAP]

"The Roundup" became the first Korean film franchise to sell over 30 million tickets.

Admissions to the latest action flick "The Roundup: No Way Out" surpassed 10.42 million on Saturday, five weeks after its release on May 31. It first hit the 10 million mark on July 1, the 21st Korean film to do so.

The franchise's first installment, “The Outlaws” (2017), sold 6.88 million tickets, while its sequel, “The Roundup" (2022), sold 12.7 million, according to distributor ABO Entertainment.

The franchise has garnered praise for revitalizing the domestic cinema industry, which had been struggling to draw people to movie theaters.

“The Roundup: No Way Out” tells the story of “monster cop” Ma Suk-do, played by Don Lee, who chases two villains involved in an international drug ring.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]