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'Scandal Makers' becomes the sleeper hit of the year

No industry insiders or analysts would have predicted the Cha Tae-hyun romp "Scandal Makers" would hit pay-dirt at the box office.

But through shrewd marketing and word of mouth from advanced screenings targeting specific demographics, the film has thus far amassed an impressive attendance figure of 1.5 million in 12 days. With a production budget of a modest $1.8 million, the comedy has already broken even and stands to turn in a tidy profit. Nine days was all it took for the film to achieve 1 million in attendance.

Aside from Cha, the film's headliner, the movie's lack of star-power makes all the more astonishing the number of advance ticket purchases, a figure competitive with Hollywood heavyweights "Twilight" and "Australia".

According to DCPLUS, the production house that financed the picture, "there's been an increase in attendance the following weekend after the film's premiere", and the film looks to ride the wave of positive feedback from moviegoers and reap the benefits of its buzz.

A few years ago, these figures would not have made many headlines in domestic media outlets, as films like "Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War", "The Host" and "Silmido" all broke Korean box office records.

Those were the years when the domestic film industry was at its peak, helped by a 40-year-old screen quota the government had implemented in order to sustain the viability of the domestic film industry.

The screen quota was a legislated policy that enforced a minimum number of screening days for domestic films in the theater each year. The system was enforced to prevent foreign filmmakers from dominating the domestic market.

But with the reduction of the screen quota as a result of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement in 2007, more and more Hollywood films began infiltrating Korean screens, resulting in a dramatic reduction of the market share for domestic films.

Since then, the Korean film industry has been on the decline, just as the Mexican film industry did when its government completely abolished its screen quota in 1994.

With sporadic hits from marquee filmmakers being the exception, Korean titles have been overwhelmed by the onslaught of Hollywood films since the reduction of the quota.

Helping to turn the tide, this year has seen a number of homegrown hits like the year's box office king, "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", "The Chaser", "Public Enemy Returns" and "Forever the Moment".

With the unexpectedly stellar performance of "Scandal Makers" and the box office legs of "Portrait of a Beauty", there is hope that the Korean film industry might rally.

By Song Woong-ki

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