Documentary 'My Dearest Fu Bao' beats 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' to debut at No. 1 at box office

The documentary film "My Dearest Fu Bao" debuted at No. 1 on its first day at the local box office on Wednesday, a rare achievement for a documentary.

A still from documentary film ″My Dearest Fu Bao″ [ACOMMZ/EVERLAND RESORT]

The documentary film "My Dearest Fu Bao" debuted at No. 1 on its first day at the local box office on Wednesday, a rare achievement for a documentary.

The film garnered approximately 45,700 admissions in theaters across the country on Wednesday, according to the Korea Box Office Information System (Kobis).

This figure surpasses the opening day attendance of the country's most successful documentaries — "My Love, Don't Cross That River" (2013) and "Old Partner" (2008) — which had around 8,600 and 1,100 admissions, respectively.

The documentary also outperformed the comedy movie "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" (2024), which premiered on the same day and ranked No. 2 at the box office with more than 22,100 admissions.

Ranking third, fourth and fifth was "Alien: Romulus" (2024), "Pilot" (2024) and "Lim Young Woong IM HERO The Stadium" (2024), respectively.

As of Thursday morning, more than 32,000 reservations had been made to watch “My Dearest Fu Bao,” placing it second in presales, behind "I, The Executioner" (2024), which will hit local theaters on Sept. 13.

Directed by Shim Jun and Thomas Ko, “My Dearest Fu Bao” captures special moments during the three months leading up to Fu Bao’s departure from Korea. The film features never-before-seen footage of Fu Bao and includes candid interviews with zookeeper Kang Cheol-won. Fu Bao’s family of pandas and other zookeepers from the Korean theme park and zoo Everland also make appearances.

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]