Will the ‘First Lady’ Continue Riding the Wave of Popularity? [Zoom In]

“This movie is a prequel to martial law”(twin****) With the impeachment motion against President Yoon Seok-yeol passed, the documentary ‘First Lady’ dealing with suspicions surrounding First Lady Kim Kun-hee is drawing keen attention.

As the seat sales rate soared, the number of screens nearly doubled compared to the release date. According to the movie ticket integrated computer network on the 17th, the movie ‘First Lady’ succeeded in surpassing 40,000 cumulative audiences on the sixth day of its release.

This achievement was made with a small number of screens reaching about 25% of the top box office movie, and the audience drop rate is overwhelmingly low compared to competing works.

This kind of performance was greatly influenced by the chaotic state of affairs after the 12.3 martial law situation.

‘First Lady’ is a documentary dealing with the story of First Lady Kim Kun-hee, who caused controversy with allegations such as luxury bags acceptance, Yangpyeong Expressway route change, and civilian intervention in state affairs. The movie points out that Mrs. Kim used the power of being the First Lady to cause various controversies.

At the same time, it questions who is the real VIP at the Yongsan presidential office by pointing Mrs. Kim as the axis of all suspicions and incidents related to President Yoon. Many prominent figures also appear in the film.

In ‘First Lady’, Pastor Choi Jae-young, who delivered a luxury bag to Mrs. Kim, reporter Lee Myung-soo of Seoul’s Voice who had a more than 7-hour conversation with Mrs. Kim during the 20th presidential election, and Chairman Jung Dae-taek, who has been in a lawsuit with Kim Kun-hee’s family for over 10 years, make direct appearances.

Additionally, it reexamines the allegations of falsified academic credentials and career, thesis plagiarism, stock manipulation of Deutsche Motors, and involvement with shamans including Cheon-gong related to Mrs. Kim before President Yoon’s election, in an interview format with the related parties. Kim Hoon-tae, CEO of the production company Onil Pictures, stated, “As you know, the release is not something decided overnight.

The starting point of this movie was the Itaewon disaster.

When looking into various controversies at the time, I became suspicious,” he said, “I wanted to inform the generation of 2030, who are relatively indifferent to politics, about these matters through the medium of film, irrelevant to the political situation.”

He continued, “In fact, the process to release it wasn’t easy.

Even after receiving the review in April, there wasn’t a distributor, so we resorted to crowd funding. Even after a distributor was decided, there were difficulties such as the cancellation of the National Assembly preview.

After the impeachment, I thought we wouldn’t be able to release it.

However, fortunately, we were able to release it as we entered the impeachment situation and received more attention,” he said.

The actual movie is causing a bigger response, intertwined with the turbulent state of affairs.

For example, the day after the impeachment motion against President Yoon was passed on the 15th, ‘First Lady’ showed an overwhelming increase in audience attendance, surpassing ‘One Win’, ‘Hidden Space’ to rise to 5th place at the box office.

The audience growth rate, compared to the previous day, was the highest among the screenings at 64.5%, and the seat sales rate also increased by about 10 percentage points to 47.4%. The intense interest in the movie naturally led to an increase in the number of screens.

‘First Lady’, which was screened 74 times across 54 screens on its release day, was shown 106 times on 59 screens on the 13th, 162 times on 75 screens on the 14th, and 206 times on 100 screens on the 15th.

Even on Monday, when the audience count trend was clear, it was screened 203 times on 91 screens.

Its screen occupancy rate increased continuously for five consecutive days after its release. A theater official stated, “Honestly, any movie with a pronounced political color is cautious.

Initially, ‘First Lady’ didn’t receive many (screen) allocations.

However, after the martial law situation broke out, the movie began to gain attention, and as more customers started seeking it out, we naturally expanded the number of screens,” adding that “a high seat sales rate is a (box office) positive signal.

From the theater’s perspective, supply is based on demand.” The audience’s enthusiasm is still high.

Despite being a politically significant film, the CGV golden egg index recorded the highest among released films at 97%.

Although relatively stricter Naver ratings gave it a score of 9.58 out of 10, the netizen score, which can be influenced by rating terrorism, stands at 8.86 out of 10. However, given the genre-specific limited audience and the ongoing winter theater market battle, merely looking at the simple box office figures suggests that the outlook is not completely optimistic according to the theater’s general sentiment. The official further pointed out, “The current situation has indeed spurred the film’s box office performance, but looking at the actual audience age, those in their 40s and 50s are the overwhelming majority.

2030 generation, the main theater audience and those leading rallies, show relatively lower interest.

Ultimately, it’s being watched by those who were already interested.

Furthermore, given the very high pre-sale rates of upcoming releases like ‘Harbin’, ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’, more explosive box office success will be realistically difficult,” he predicted.

Reporter Jang Joo-yeon jang3@edaily.co.kr