[HanCinema's News] "12.12: The Day" Makes History as It Passes Twelve Million Viewer Mark

Already the best performing film of 2023 at the South Korean box office, "12.12: The Day" continues to make history in 2014 as it passes the the twelve million viewer mark in its eighth week of availability. "12.12: The Day" now stands at 12,538,553 admissions. The historical political military thriller had 258,230 admissions in its eighth weekend, only slightly behind "Noryang: Deadly Sea" with 269,534 admissions in its third weekend.

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"12.12: The Day" presents a fictionalized version of events that unfolded on December 12th, 1979 following the assassination of its president and the leadership which sought to replace him. While interest was reasonably high ahead of the film's release, it only cleared 1,892,610 admissions in its opening weekend. While good numbers in general, films with these kinds of opening numbers struggle to even reach the ten million viewer mark, let alone the twelve million viewer mark.

Initially the main likely goal of "12.12: The Day" seemed to just become the best performing November film of all time, the previous recordholder being "Inside Men" from 2015 with 7,074,581 admissions. "12.12: The Day" has benefited substantially from positive receptions among the general population, as viewers have recommended the film highly to their own personal acquaintances. It holds a 99% positive self-reported rating on the CGV movie theater chain's website.

"12.12: The Day" has also had a very strong in-person marketing campaign from its stars. Lead actor Jung Woo-sung has personally attended 217 stage greetings where he met with fans, and in which other top cas and crew also participated. This campaign has been countrywide, with events in Busan, Ulsan, Daegu, Daejeon and Gwangju as well as Seoul. Such events also empowered "12.12: The Day" long after its initial November 22nd release.

After an unusually long run of thirty-three days, "12.12: The Day" finally earned ten million admissions, but then it just kept going. It currently sits at tenth place on the all-time South Korean box office leaderboard, and may yet overcome "The Roundup" in ninth place with 12,693,415 admissions, or even "The Thieves" in sixth place with 12,984,701 admissions. "12.12: The Day" is also the first original film, not a sequel, to have earned at least ten million admissions since "Parasite" in 2019.

Written by William Schwartz