Poster for director Jang Hang-jun's film ‘The Man Who Lives with the King’. Photo ㈜Showbox

Director Jang Hang-jun's film ‘The Man Who Lives with the King’ (hereafter Wangsanam) has risen to No. 2 all-time among Korean films by admissions.

In results tallied on the 12th from the Korean Film Council Integrated Computer Network for Theater Ticket Admissions, ‘Wangsanam’ drew 70,659 moviegoers on the 11th to place third at the overall box office.

As a result, cumulative admissions reached 16,331,379. This surpasses the final admissions of the 2019 film by director Lee Byung-hun, ‘Extreme Job’, which totaled 16,264,944, moving it to No. 2 all-time by admissions.

The next target for ‘Wangsanam’ is the all-time No. 1 spot. The current all-time No. 1 Korean film at the box office is the 2014 film by director Kim Han-min, ‘Myeongnyang’, with a record of 17,613,682 admissions. Numerically, the gap is about 1.3 million. Currently, weekday attendance is in the 30,000-40,000 range, and on weekends in the 70,000s, but with follow-up releases rolling out in quick succession, it is true that narrowing the gap will not be easy.

Set in 1457 against the backdrop of Cheongnyeongpo in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, ‘Wangsanam’ tells the story of a village head who volunteers to go into exile for the revival of his village and a young former king who is deposed and banished. The cast includes Yoo Hae-jin, Park Ji-hoon, Yoo Ji-tae, Jeon Mi-do, Park Ji-hwan, Lee Jun-hyuk, Ahn Jae-hong, and Kim Min.