Extended Chuseok holiday brings theatrical smorgasbord
This year's Chuseok arrives bearing an unusual gift. Thanks to a fortuitous alignment of the lunar calendar with National Foundation Day (Oct. 3) and Hangeul Day (Oct. 9), Koreans are staring down a luxurious seven-day break — the kind of extended holiday that comes around once in a blue moon.
With all that extra time on their hands, industry watchers are cautiously optimistic that people will venture beyond their streaming services and into actual theaters. The lineup itself is eclectic, offering everything from prestige fare to crowd-pleasing genre flicks.
Here's your guide to navigating the holiday box office.
Korean holiday releases have undergone quite a transformation in recent years.
Gone are the days when the holidays meant wall-to-wall blockbusters with inflated budgets. Instead, the season has shifted toward leaner, family-friendly comedies — a pragmatic pivot given the industry's postpandemic woes.
A case in point: This year's Lunar New Year saw Kwon Sang-woo's "Hitman 2," a goofy action-comedy about a reformed contract killer, rack up 2.54 million admissions despite mixed reviews, proving there's still an appetite for unpretentious fun.
This Chuseok doubles down on comedy, though the season's major commercial releases promise to twist the formula in their own ways.
First up is Park Chan-wook's "No Other Choice," which hit screens Sept. 24 and has been holding court at the top of the box office ever since. The film follows Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun), a freshly laid-off family man who hatches an increasingly unhinged scheme to take out his rivals for a coveted position.
What starts as a garden-variety corporate rat race spirals into pitch-black farce, with Man-soo's hapless machinations growing ever more absurd by the scene.
The film is vintage Park — visually rapturous, psychologically twisted, and gleefully vicious. The director's trademark precision is on full display, from the meticulous framing to the way he orchestrates violence and desire into an absurdist spectacle.
So far, reactions have been mixed. Some viewers have found the film scattershot, its tangents and digressions more jarring than exhilarating. Still, critical consensus skews positive, and the numbers don't lie: as of Wednesday, "No Other Choice" has pulled in 1.23 million admissions and shows no signs of slowing through the holiday week.
Then there's "Boss," which lands in theaters Friday -- right on the cusp of Chuseok proper. This one's a full-throated throwback to the early 2000s gangster-comedy craze, when films like "My Wife is a Gangster" and the "Marrying the Mafia" franchise ruled the roost.
The brazenly high-concept premise flips the usual power struggle playbook: Mobsters desperately try not to become their gang's next boss, each nursing less outlandish dreams — running a Chinese restaurant, becoming a tango champion.
Early word suggests "Boss" is exactly what it looks like: a nostalgia bomb packed with recycled gags and broad comedy. Whether it'll connect with holiday audiences seeking dumb fun remains to be seen, but its cast — stacked with familiar faces like Jo Woo-jin, Jung Kyung-ho and Park Ji-hwan — at least gives it a fighting chance.
Once brushed aside as niche fare, anime has become a box office powerhouse in Korea, and this holiday season is no exception.
Leading the charge is "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle," which has already cemented itself as a bona fide phenomenon. After opening Aug. 22, the film crossed the 5-million-ticket threshold Tuesday, edging past the year's previous heavyweights "F1" and "My Daughter is a Zombie" to become 2025's highest-grossing release.
Adapted from the wildly popular manga and later anime series, the film follows demon slayer Tanjiro and his companions as they infiltrate a sprawling, labyrinthine castle to confront the demonic overlord Muzan.
Six weeks into its run, it's showing remarkable resilience — landing third in Tuesday's box office rankings — reportedly thanks to a devoted fanbase making repeat trips. The big question now: Can it dethrone Makoto Shinkai's "Suzume" as Korea's all-time top-grossing anime film? That would require surpassing 5.58 million admissions, a milestone well within reach if the holiday crowds materialize.
Meanwhile, "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc," which opened Sept. 24, is banking on the holiday bump with 580,000 tickets sold so far. The direct sequel to the hit anime series follows teenage devil hunter Denji as he crosses paths with the mysterious Reze, and while it hasn't yet exploded quite like "Demon Slayer," it's got a solid shot at cracking the million-ticket mark during the extended break.
On the homegrown front, "Bad Girl: Run Hani" — a nostalgia-soaked reimagining of the beloved 1980s animated series — hits screens Oct. 7. The original "Run Hani," about a spunky middle schooler who becomes a track star, is a touchstone of Korean animation history, and this theatrical revival smartly switches perspectives, centering on Hani's rival Na Ae-ri while transplanting the story to modern Seoul's urban sprawl. It's a savvy way to honor the source material while giving it fresh legs for a new generation, though the real test will be whether nostalgia alone can pack seats.
If prestige filmmaking is more your speed, this holiday delivers in spades. Wednesday saw the release of two works from world-renowned auteurs, both practically tailor-made for festival circuit devotees and uncannily resonant in their political urgency.
First is Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident," winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The film — shot in secret while Panahi endured persecution from the Iranian regime — follows a group of former political prisoners who believe they've identified their torturer. It's a taut psychological thriller that doubles as a searing meditation on trauma's enduring grip and the moral complexities of vengeance. Korea is among the first markets worldwide to give it a theatrical release.
Then there's the ever-elusive Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another," a sprawling 170-minute epic starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up revolutionary scrambling to rescue his daughter from old enemies. Drawing loosely from Thomas Pynchon's "Vineland," the film showcases Anderson at his most ambitious — equal parts kinetic action thriller, absurdist family drama, and scathing political allegory.
Despite widespread acclaim for its technical virtuosity and timely anti-fascist themes, its US opening was rather underwhelming — a $22 million debut against a budget north of $130 million. Whether cinephiles here will turn out in droves during the holiday remains to be seen, but if nothing else, it's a reminder that maximalist, uncompromising filmmaking still deserves its place on the big screen.
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