‘Escape from Mogadishu’ scores highest K-film opening this year

Action blockbuster “Escape from Mogadishu” opened strong, Wednesday, scoring the highest opening record of this year among Korean films.

Star director Ryoo Seung-wan’s latest flick saw about 127,000 ticket sales on its premiere day, taking up almost 50 percent of the entire ticket sales that day. It topped the local box office and grossed 893 million won ($780,000).

This, by far, surpasses the previous opening record among Korean films of the year by thriller action film “Hard Hit,” which opened June 23 with about 55,700 ticket sales. The film ranked the fourth-highest opening score among all films, following the latest Fast &Furious film “F9,” Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow” and Thai horror film “The Medium.” Helmed by Ryoo, who has directed tent-pole films like “The Berlin File” (2013), “Veteran” (2015) and “The Battleship Island” (2017), the film unfolds the true story of South and North Korean diplomats during the Somali Civil War in 1991.

Amid the chaos of the uprising in the Somali capital city of Mogadishu, diplomats from the South — played by Kim Yoon-seok and Zo In-sung — join hands with their antagonistic counterparts from the North — played by Huh Joon-ho and Koo Kyo-hwan — on a mission for survival.

With “Escape from Mogadishu” landing at the top of the box office, both “The Boss Baby: Family Business” and “Black Widow” slipped down the chart to second and third, respectively.

“The Boss Baby: Family Business,” which opened last week, saw about 34,000 ticket sales, Wednesday, with 261 million won ($227,800) grossing.

The sequel to the 2017 DreamWorks animated film “The Boss Baby,” directed by Tom McGrath, follows two brothers, Tim Templeton (voiced by James Marsden) and Ted Templeton Jr. (voiced by Alec Baldwin), going undercover as babies to fight an evil genius.

Marvel Studios’ latest flick “Black Widow” is still going strong in the local box office since it hit the theaters on July 7. It accumulated about 29,000 ticket sales, Wednesday, adding its total to 2.7 million tickets and 27 billion won ($23.7 million) grossing.