Don Lee's 'The Roundup: Punishment' pulls record-breaking audience on opening day

Pictured is actor Don Lee as cop Ma Seok-do in ″The Roundup: Punishment." The film rolled out to Korean theaters on Wednesday. [ABO ENTERTAINMENT]

“The Roundup: Punishment,” the fourth installment of “The Outlaws” franchise, began its first day of domestic release with 821,631 admissions, the highest among the crime action film series.

A total of 821,631 audience members watched the film in theaters on Wednesday, the day of its release, according to the Korea Box Office Information System (Kobis).

The figure surpasses the number of people who watched the second and third installments, “The Roundup” and “The Roundup: No Way Out,” which garnered 467,525 and 740,874 people on their respective release dates.

The audience number for “The Roundup: Punishment” also places it at No. 4 among the biggest openings for domestic films in the Korean box office. The film trails “Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days” (2018), “The Battleship Island” (2017) and “Train to Busan” (2016), which hold in the top 3 spots in that order.

“The Roundup: Punishment” continues the story of cop Ma Seok-do, played by Don Lee, who chases down criminals, this time in the Philippines. Actor Kim Moo-yul stars as drug lord Baek Chang-ki, who is also the head of an illegal online gambling organization.

The film premiered in Korea and Indonesia on Wednesday. It will premiere in other regions at later dates.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]