[HanCinema's News] "Alienoid: Return to the Future" Opens With With High Expectations

In 2022, "Alienoid" had been one of the year's most hotly anticipated films. The time travel mashup story was the culmination of years of work by famed South Korean director Choi Dong-hoon, whose previous "Assassination" ranks eighth place on South Korea's all-time box office with over 12.7 million admissions. "Alienoid" underperformed relative to this pedigree, and earned only a little over 1.5 million admissions despite its prime release slot in the summer of 2007.

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Because "Alienoid" had been conceived from the outset as a multi-part production, "Alienoid: Return to the Future" had already finished much of its filming, and so the sequel's schedule continued despite the prequel's discouraging lack of success. But where "Alienoid" performed weakly in its initial box office offering, the unusual film has been better received in the months to come on OTT platforms. So it is that with "Alienoid: Return to the Future" opening today, expectations are much higher.

The Korean Film Council had already confirmed 108,353 early reservations before the film actually opened. "Alienoid: Return to the Future" also has around forty to fifty percent of all film reservations at the moment, depending on the queried source. "Alienoid: Return to the Future" is guaranteed to win the South Korean box office this week, owing to a lack of new competition. The main outstanding question is by how much.

In general the South Korean film market is in a more optimistic place than it was a year ago, thanks in large part to the surprise success of "12.12: The Day" and its powerful resiliency over the last two months as the film has exceeded twelve million viewers overall. "Noryang: Deadly Sea" is another bright spot, with over four million admissions to its credit. But this compares to seven million viewers for "Hansan: Rising Dragon" which also screened in the summer 2022 season.

With "Alienoid" shooting to the top of OTT charts in anticipation of its sequel, "Alienoid: Return to the Future" is almost certain to improve on the box office performance of its predecessor, if only because its predecessor did so poorly. The weird comic genre mash stylings of the "Alienoid" franchise represent a serious attempt at innovating the South Korean blockbuster. But while beloved by fans, it remains unclear if "Alienoid" can truly break into the mainstream.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Alienoid: Return to the Future" is directed by Choi Dong-hoon, and features Ryu Jun-yeol, Kim Tae-ri, Kim Woo-bin, Lee Hanee, Yum Jung-ah, Jo Woo-jin. Release date in Korea: 2024/01/10.