this and that

Finally got a chance to view the movie last week. Woohoo! Have some thoughts on the movie and Minho’s acting coming up in another post.

For now, been wanting to chime in over the movie’s commercial and artistic appeal since a few people have asked what I’ve thought of it.  And I wanted to wait till I got a chance to see the movie personally, as well as to see how it did in theater-run domestically and internationally.

Here are some numbers as of 3/17/15:

Revenue:

Total Admissions : 2,191,482 Total Gross : $15,737,173  Rated: 19+  Cr: KOFIC 

Cost (Production+ Marketing): 

10 Billion Won or 8,883,000 USD (per Korean news reports and Mister X)

Overall, I wouldn't call it a runaway success commercially. Minho, himself, has said as much -- that it would need to break 3 million ticket sales in order to break even. Granted, this excludes overseas sales, but what he said is fairly accurate given that the movie cost 10 billion won to make, and it's not a 1:1 ratio for every ticket revenue = profit. And from what I’ve gathered overseas sales have been okay. But it’s rather difficult to gauge how revenue-profit sharing structure works in this kind of situation. I'm inclined to say that overseas sale is immaterial, so we can ignore that number for now (unless, GB gets a wide theatrical release in China, then we'll revisit “overseas sale number” later).

However, I wouldn't take this news as, "Omg, it's the end of the world!" Because it's not. Not at all. 

If anything, it was a smart move for Minho to choose Gangnam Blues as his first cinematic leading role. It had a lot going for him - written and directed by a well-respected filmmaker, based on a script that is the last part of the famous “Street Trilogy,” etc... And reviews have shown that he made the right decision. He immersed in a role that is giving him more acting credibility in the eyes of those who work in the field. I want to see more of that kind of challenge.