KUALA LUMPUR: Korean zombie movie #Alive has ironically managed to draw movie fans into cinemas after registering an impressive attendance on the first day of its release yesterday.
According to Soompi, the Korean Film Council had officially revealed that the horror thriller drew 204,071 cinemagoers on its premiere day.
This figure reflects the highest number of cinema patrons ever to attend the opening day of any film since South Korea had raised its Covid-19 threat alert level to severe in February.
#Alive had also achieved the highest number of first-day moviegoers of any film since this year's biggest Korean box office hit, The Man Standing Next.
The political drama was reported to have attracted 252,058 moviegoers on the first day of its release in January.
Featuring popular stars Yoo Ah In and Park Shin Hye in lead roles, #Alive is a survival thriller about the sudden outbreak of a mysterious illness that causes those infected to attack other people.
The two celebrities play survivors who are trapped and isolated in their apartments, without access to cellular data, Wi-Fi, texting or phone calls, after the rapid spread of the disease thorughout Seoul leads to total chaos.
Meanwhile, it was reported that most cinemas in Korea had apparently remained open during the Covid-19 pandemic but attendance was predictably dismal.
According to the Korea Film Council, over 17 million movie tickets were sold nationwide last January.
This amount dropped significantly in April to a record low of 970,000.
But it seems to be slowly picking up with May registering sales of more than 1.5 million tickets.