It wasn’t, on paper, a gigantic weekend at the box office. Yet, it was an eventful one. Practical Magic 2 opened to $30 million, finally taking down Spider-Man: Brand New Day after a six-week run atop the charts. Further down the charts though, a new alien thriller from The Wailing director Na Hong-jin also debuted in North America. Entitled Hope and hailing from NEON, it had one of the biggest wide releases ever for a Korean movie in the U.S.
See also: The Top 10 Scariest Korean Films of All Time According to the Internet
Hope opened on 1,560 screens over the weekend, which is an astonishing number for a Korean import. Even movies like Parasite, which eventually went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, don’t roll out on that many screens initially. But buzz was impressive for this one and NEON gave it the red carpet treatment. It worked out well enough, as the movie pulled in $3.3 million, landing at number eight on the charts.
It was essentially tied for number seven with Insidious: Out of the Further, which did $3.3 million in its fourth weekend of release. Both movies managed to do better than The Uprising, the latest from director Paul Greengrass, which landed at number nine with $3.2 million. It was, however, no match for the two-hander action flick Runner, which opened to $6.4 million at number four on the charts.
Hope takes place in a remote South Korea village. It centers on police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung- min) and officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon) are called to find a mysterious creature that has wreaked havoc on the village. In the nearby forest, a coterie of hunters, including Sung- ki (Zo In-Sung) set out to track the beast and find themselves hunted instead. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading.
The big question now is whether or not Hong-jin’s latest can leg out in the coming weeks. With Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil hitting theaters this upcoming weekend, competition will be steep. Critics have been on its side, which should help. Either way, getting a slice of Korean genre cinema on this many screens on its opening weekend was a win in itself.
The fact that this many people showed up for it is undoubtedly nice to see. It's also one of those situations where Hollywood tends to follow the bounching ball. If studios see that this sort of thing can work, someone else will try to emulate it sooner rather than later. Optimistically, this could lead to more foreign genre fare getting a meaningful release theatrically in the U.S.
Hope is in theaters now.
