“Exit” and “The Divine Fury” have opened the second-half Korean screen calendar in buoyant note to raise hopes for a bumper year for Korean movies.

According to data compiled by the Korean Film Council on Wednesday, Exit and The Divine Fury sold more than 190,000 tickets each as of 9:00 a.m. on the first day of release, delivering 24.4 percent and 24.2 percent of all tickets to local fans.

With the score of above 90 percent on CGV Golden Egg points from viewers, the two new movies are expected to stop Disney’s box-office reign in the country.

Exit is an action survival comedy starring actor Jo Jung-suk and singer and actress Im Yoon-ah, known as Yoona who debuted a member of girl group Girl’s Generation in 2007. A toxic gas covers Seoul, and the two work try to escape the city full of high-rise buildings using their climbing skills. Fans expect blockbuster spectacles with a sense of humor from the disaster movie targeting the peak summer season.

The new action horror film The Divine Fury also has drawn attention from local moviegoers as it was written and directed by Jason Kim, well-known for his hit movie “Midnight Runners” (2017, 5.6 million views). It tells the story of a martial arts champion played by Park Seo-joon who earns divine powers to fight against evil, raising expectations for the partnership with veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki, who plays a Vatican priest to team up with Park.

The two raises hopes to revive the strong streak of Korean films interrupted by Disney movies. In July, Korean films were chosen by a mere 12 percent of all viewers visiting local theaters. Walt Disney’s The Lion King remake, watched by over 4 million so far in Korea, topped the national box office ranking, followed by another Disney-made Aladdin, which arrived at local theaters more than two months ago.

By Kim Seul-gi and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]