With the eighth largest film market in the world, South Korean audiences are a good bunch to watch if you want to identify a hit. This is especially true if a film stays atop their box office rankings for a little over a month, which is exactly what Kingsman: The Secret Service has done as of today's box office reports.
The Korea Times has reported on their US site that Matthew Vaughn's latest box office outing has struck it big in the burgeoning overseas market is a rather surprising way. The specific scope of Kingsman: The Secret Service's victory is to the tune of 5 million tickets at the South Korean box office. Apparently, that's enough to dethrone the last R-rated champion of the foreign film market in the country – a title that used to belong to Zack Snyder's 300.
Converting this success into actual money brings the film's success into a much clearer light, as Kingsman: The Secret Service has managed to draw a little over $35 million in foreign box office dollars. While it may not sound like much compared to domestic box office take of $109 million, it does happen to be the best performance of any territory outside of the U.S. Even the United Kingdom's grosses are about $10 million less than the South Korean showing of the suave spy caper, which is definitely an interesting footnote considering the film's protagonists are quintessentially British.
So why is Kingsman: The Secret Service such a huge hit in the South Korean film market? A good guess would say that the combination of ultra-colorful visuals, as well as the high fashion costume design, have a big part to do with it. Another possible answer could be the fact that the youth audiences in the country have really latched onto Matthew Vaughn's style as a director, as his films have had consistently good showings in the country's box offices. Whatever it is, it doesn't look like Fox is marketing the film any differently in South Korea than in any other country. At least, that's what we gather from the trailer provided by Marie Clare Korea, which is embedded below.
Between the stellar domestic showing, as well as a solid international market that isn't fully in play just yet, it looks like 20th Century Fox will be green lighting that Kingsman: The Secret Service sequel any day now. The fact that Matthew Vaughn sounds interested in returning is even more hopeful, as the chances that Kingsman 2 would turn into another Kick Ass 2 would be severely lower with the director heading back into the chair for the second time.
Kingsman: The Secret Service is currently in theaters, waiting for your willing eyes to feast upon its wonderful violence and off color humor.
