‘Confidential Assignment 2’ Film Reaches Over $35 Million On Second Weekend At Korean Box Office

“Confidential Assignment 2: International” has reached an exciting new milestone at the Korean box office!

For the second weekend running, comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” held top spot at the South Korean box office. And it did so with a massive 75% share of the market.

But as the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holiday retreated into the rear-view mirror numbers, both for the sequel film and the nationwide box office, came crashing down.

“Confidential Assignment 2” stars Hyun Bin as a North Korean detective named Rim Chul Ryung and Yoo Hae Jin as a South Korean detective named Kang Jin Tae, who previously teamed up to catch a criminal in the original “Confidential Assignment” film. In the new sequel, the duo gets back together to hunt down the leader of a North Korean criminal organization that has wreaked havoc all over the world (played by Jin Sun Kyu), and they are joined by Kang Jin Tae’s sister-in-law (Girls’ Generation’s YoonA) and an FBI agent from the United States (Daniel Henney).

According to Variety, “Confidential Assignment 2” earned $6.89 million over the latest Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That figure was down 57% compared with its opening salvo of $21.0 million a week earlier.

Still, since opening on Sept. 7, the film has already amassed $35.2 million. That makes it the fifth highest grossing film of the year to date, ahead of “Hunt” and behind “Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

The film was directed by Lee Seok-hoon and executive produced by hitmaker JK Youn. It stars Hyun bin, Yoo Hai Jin, Lim Yoon-a and Daniel Henney.

It is a sequel to the 2017 hit “Confidential Assignment,” in which operatives from North and South Korea cooperate to take down a criminal. The earlier title earned $46 million from 7.82 million spectators.

Comedy, “6/45” held on to second place, but earned less than $1 million. It scored $910,000 for a cumulative of $13.4 million since release on Aug. 24, 2022.

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Recent holdover, “Katuri The Movie The Big City Adventure” earned $259,000 in third place. The Korean-made animation has earned $949,000 after 11 days on release.

“Hunt” took $156,000 in fourth place for a cumulative of $32.0 million. “Top Gun Maverick” earned $151,000 for a cumulative of $63.2 million. Previously released in 2019, “Aladdin” earned $111,000 in sixth place for a cumulative of $78.6 million.

The weekend’s highest placed new release was “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” which opened in seventh with a score of $80,800 over the weekend and $117,000 over its opening five days.

“The Black Phone” earned $78,800 in its second weekend of release in Korea. That gave it a $749,000 cumulative.

“Hansan: Rising Dragon” brought up tenth place with $40,000 over the weekend and a cumulative of $53.1 million since release eon July 27, 2022.

“Vita Dolce,” a Korean drama about a popular singer who become a classical musician, also scored $189,000 from 8,100 ticket sales, according to Kobis.

According to the South China Morning Post review, Hyun Bin and Yoo Hae-jin reprise their roles as national rivals turned crime-fighting colleagues, as they look to smash a North Korean drug syndicate. This time out, the stakes are higher than ever as their manhunt goes global, and Daniel Henney’s FBI agent shows up in Seoul, hot on the heels of Jin Seon-jyu’s ruthless crime lord, who gave his team the slip in New York.

The mismatched buddy cop movie is a tried and tested staple of the action genre, and incoming director Lee (The Pirates) wisely pushes the playful competitiveness and distrust between his protagonists to the forefront, while letting their procedural duties take a back seat.

“The dynamic between Hyun’s stern, yet devilishly handsome North Korean agent Cheol-ryung and Yoo’s schlubby family-man cop Jin-tae remains the film’s most meaningful relationship. Their rekindled bromance is given an extra kick, however, by the arrival of federal agent Jack (Henney), whose model good looks and sophisticated Western charm are even more threatening than their live-wire quarry.”

“In the action stakes, Confidential Assignment 2: International doesn’t really push the envelope. Shoot-outs and car chases are strewn throughout, most notably during an eye-catching opening set-piece in the streets of New York, but there is a tendency to prioritise ear-splitting volume over technical innovation.”

“Similarly, Jin Seon-jyu’s snarling bad guy Jang fails to make much of an impact, tapping into neither the moral ambivalence nor gratuitous sadism that has come to define Korean movie villains in recent years.”

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Sources: Variety, Soompi, South China Morning Post

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