'Elemental's success continues with more than 6 million tickets sold

Main poster for ″Elemental″ [WALT DISNEY COMPANY KOREA]

Pixar Studios' animation film "Elemental" surpassed 6 million viewers in Korea on Thursday.

"Elemental" is about characters representing the four elements — fire, earth, air and water — living together in a New York-like metropolis. With the 6-million-record on Thursday, "Elemental" became the first animation since "Frozen 2" in 2019 to reach the number, according to distributor Walt Disney Company Korea.

Previously, "Elemental" became the most-watched foreign film of this year after it beat the Japanese animation "Suzume," which had recorded 5.54 million cumulative ticket sales.

The success of "Elemental" in Korea is largely thanks to the many Korean elements in the film and its production.

It was produced and directed by Korean American Peter Sohn, and its head animator is Korean American Lee Chae-yeon.

It also includes Korean and immigrant perspectives in the story, such as the importance of and pressure from family relationships and the struggles with discrimination that the main character Ember and her family face.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]