'Elemental' becomes most popular Pixar work to date in Korea with 5 million viewers

The Pixar Studios animation film “Elemental” recorded 5 million moviegoers over the weekend and became the most popular Pixar work to date in Korea. “Elemental” recorded a cumulative audience of 5.03 million as of Monday, according to the...

Main poster for ″Elemental″ [WALT DISNEY COMPANY KOREA]

The Pixar Studios animation film “Elemental” recorded 5 million moviegoers over the weekend and became the most popular Pixar work to date in Korea.

“Elemental” recorded a cumulative audience of 5.03 million as of Monday, according to the integrated computer network for movie theater tickets of the Korean Film Council.

This number surpasses the record set by Pixar’s highest-grossing film in Korea previously, “Inside Out” (2015), which garnered 4.97 million viewers.

Among all the films released in Korea this year, it has the third highest number of viewers after “The Roundup: No Way Out,” which recorded 10.67 million audiences, and “Suzume,” which gained 5.54 million audiences.

It is noteworthy that “Elemental” has been sluggish at the box office in North America but has caused a sensation in Korea. According to Box Office Mojo, a movie revenue aggregation site, “Elemental” earned $137 million at the North American box office. The film earned 49.7 billion won ($38.6 million) in revenue in Korea, the second highest in the world after North America.

“Elemental” being popular in Korea is attributed to the many Korean elements seen in and outside of the film.

The film was produced and directed by Korean American Peter Sohn, and its head animator is Korean American Lee Chae-yeon. It also includes various Korean and immigrant perspectives in the story, such as the importance of and pressure from family relationships and the struggles with discrimination that the main character Ember and her family face.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]