Don Lee's 'The Roundup: Punishment' sells 4 million tickets in just five days

The fourth installment of 'The Roundup' crime action series has achieved over 4 million total admissions in just five days, setting a record for film releases in Korea this year.

A scene from ″The Roundup: Punishment″ [ABO ENTERTAINMENT]

The fourth installment of “The Roundup” crime action series surpassed 4 million total admissions on the fifth day of its release, yet another record for any film released this year.

“The Roundup: Punishment” hit the 4-million-tickets mark on Sunday afternoon and had tallied 4,003,981 admissions as of Monday afternoon, according to the Korea Box Office Information System (Kobis).

A total of 2,918,568 tickets were sold over the weekend, accounting for 94 percent of all box office sales in Korea, per Kobis.

“The Roundup: Punishment” reached the 4-million milestone faster than any other film released this year. The previous record was held by grave-digging occult film “Exhuma,” which did so in nine days.

The action-crime film has also surpassed its break-even point, which was 3.5 million tickets, according to the film's distributor, Plus M Entertainment.

The film market anticipates that “The Roundup: Punishment” will eventually surpass 10 million tickets sold, following in the footsteps of its megasuccessful predecessors in “The Roundup” series. The three previous films were all box office hits: “The Outlaws” (2017) sold 6,880,546 tickets, “The Roundup” (2022) sold 12,693,415 and “The Roundup: No Way Out” (2023) sold 10,682,813.

“The Roundup” series has seen popularity for its good-cop-beats-all storyline and powerful action scenes featuring a lead character played by actor Don Lee, who is also known in Korea as Ma Dong-seok.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]