10 Million for 왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown)

It was early 2004, when Eagle Pictures finalized all the details for their new project, the historical Drama 왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown): it would be an adaptation of the popular play 이 (爾, Yi), and would be directed by Lee Joon-Ik, an established producer who came back to the film arena as a director with the 2003 Fusion Historical Drama 황산벌 (Once Upon a Time in The Battlefield). By that year's Summer, the casting was completed as well: Jung Jin-Young would play Prince Yeonsan (role which was set since the beginning) and Jang Hyuk would play Jang-Saeng, the 'leader' of the Clowns.

Jang, already well established in Korea and abroad, was involved in a draft dodging scandal which also included Song Seung-Heon -- who had to drop out of 슬픈연가 (Sad Sonata) because of the scandal. Blessing in disguise? -- Han Jae-Suk and many others, and had to drop out of the picture. Talented and severely underappreciated actor Gam Woo-Sung was brought in as his replacement in March 2005, and now the last piece of the puzzle was the role of Gong-Gil, which went to unknown Lee Joon-Gi. He debuted in the 2001 Japan/Korea co-produced Drama 별의 소리 (Star's Echo), and also appeared in Byun Young-Joo's 발레교습소 (Flying Boys), but few people knew him before this film. The casting was complete, now everything was ready to start.

Fast forward to December 29, the film's opening day, over 225 nationwide screens. Competing with Hollywood blockbusters and Chungmuro's counterpart -- Yoon Jong-Chan's 청연 (Blue Swallow) and Kwak Kyung-Taek's 태풍 (Typhoon) -- the film was supposed to have a rather quiet run at the box office, at least according to industry insiders. Despite the excellent reviews it received, few people ever expected it to have this success, and beat all its more 'prestigious' competitors with such ease. It reached the Million tickets in 4 days, became the most successful Korean Historical Drama of all time by January 13, and even President Roh Moo-Hyun decided to watch it on January 21. Now, a mere 45 days after release, this little film with no stars, a fraction of the budget of the usual Korean blockbuster, and a very pragmatic director, is on the verge of becoming the third Korean film to sell more than 10 Million tickets.

Distributors Cinema Service announced the film sold 9,720,000 tickets by February 8, and they expect to reach the 10 Million by tomorrow. The other two record breakers are 2003's 실미도 (Silmido) with 11,080,000 and 2004's 태극기 휘날리며 (Taegukgi) with 11,740,000, targets which are still far, but by now I wouldn't call it a surprise if the film beat those two as well. Who can stop the clowns?

[Source: Chosun Ilbo 1, Chosun Ilbo 2]