Actor Kwon Sang Woo is expected to become January's box office star again with Heartman following Hitman.
According to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) integrated theater network, the film Heartman (director Choi Won-seop, distributor/provided by Lotte Entertainment, produced by Movielock and Like M Company) recorded a real-time reservation rate of 20.4% as of 7 a.m. today (14th). This drew further attention as it was the second-highest real-time reservation rate at the domestic box office.
In particular, the number of advance bookings for Heartman is 36,322. This figure follows the global hit Avatar: Fire and Ash and another Korean film currently showing, If We. With Avatar: Fire and Ash driving box office momentum as a global anticipated release, the family comedy Heartman is expected to attract winter break family audiences.
Moreover, it is noteworthy that Kwon Sang Woo, who plays the title role, has consistently posted solid box office results in January for several years. Starting with Hitman, which opened in January 2020, he appeared in Pirates: The Goblin Flag in January 2022, Switch in January 2023, and met audiences last January with Hitman 2.
In this regard, Kwon Sang Woo recently appeared on SBS's News Hunters and confidently called himself a "January box office star." At the time he likened it to the famous line "Love will come back" from the drama Heaven's Stairway and said, "I want to say 'Sang Woo returns.' The actor Kwon Sang Woo, who succeeds at the box office every January, is coming back. Somehow it turned out that way, and I want to keep coming back."
The production company Movielock also prides itself on a track record of well-received comedies. It was loved for the youth comedies Midnight Runners starring Park Seo Jun and Kang Ha-neul, and Pilot starring Cho Jungseok. Whether the star power of the lead actor and the production company's track record will add warmth to a domestic box office that seemed frozen is drawing attention.
Heartman is a comedy about Seung-min (Kwon Sang Woo), the returned man, who struggles to keep the first love he meets again but develops an unspeakable secret he can never tell her. It opened today (14th) in theaters nationwide.<
[Photo] OSEN DB, provided by Lotte Entertainment.
[OSEN]