Hwang Jung-min and Hyun Bin's 'Negotiation' takes first place on the first day of its release

On the first day of release, Hwang Jung-min and Hyun Bin laughed.

According to the Korean Film Council's integrated computer network on the 19th, 'Negotiation' (director Soon-rye Lim) ranked first in the box office, mobilizing 104,798 viewers on the 18th. This is the result of beating ‘Avatar: Path of Water’ (directed by James Cameron, ‘Avatar 2’), which held first place at the box office for six consecutive weeks.

'Negotiation' depicts the negotiation operation between a diplomat and a local National Intelligence Service agent who headed to Afghanistan to rescue Koreans who were taken hostage by the Taliban in the worst kidnapping incident.

‘Ghost’ (directed by Lee Hae-young) entered second place. ‘Ghost’ mobilized 41,500 viewers. 'Ghost' depicts the desperate struggle of suspects trapped in a remote hotel under suspicion of being spy 'ghosts' planted by an anti-Japanese organization at the Japanese Government-General of Korea in Gyeongseong in 1933, and the unstoppable operation of the real 'ghosts'.

Third place is ‘The First Slam Dunk’ (directed by Takehiko Inoue). 37,714 viewers watched it. ‘The First Slam Dunk’ attracted more audiences than ‘Avatar 2’ for the first time since its release.

It ranked 3rd behind ‘Negotiation’ and ‘Ghost’, which were released simultaneously on the 18th.

4th place is ‘Avatar 2’. With 26,254 viewers, the cumulative number of viewers exceeded 9,536,561 and is expected to reach 1 million. ‘Avatar 2’ is expected to exceed 10 million viewers next week after the Lunar New Year holiday.

5th place was 'Hero' (Director Yoon Je-gyun), which attracted 14,837 viewers.

Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr