CJ ENM, 'Alien+' Faces Box Office Warning

Mobilized 158,110 People on Opening Day, Low for a Blockbuster
Seat Sales Rate Only 11.4%...Low Audience Satisfaction
Strategy Led by 'Broker' and 'Decision to Leave' Completely Disrupted

The movie 'Alien+In' Part 1 is facing a red light in its box office performance. More than half of the secured theater seats went empty.

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 21st, 'Alien+In' Part 1 attracted 158,110 viewers on its opening day, the 20th. It topped the box office, surpassing 'Minions 2 (146,912 viewers)', 'Top Gun: Maverick (61,308 viewers)', and 'Decision to Leave (21,092 viewers)'. Although it seems like a smooth start on the surface, there are many concerns beneath. The number of viewers mobilized is low for a blockbuster.

'The Outlaws 2', which recorded the highest audience this year with 12,673,353 viewers, attracted three times more viewers than 'Alien+In' Part 1 on its opening day (May 18), drawing 467,498 viewers. 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness', which attracted 5,884,569 viewers, started with 715,684 viewers on May 4, and 'Jurassic World: Dominion', which recorded 2,836,701 viewers, began with 763,645 viewers on June 1. 'The Witch 2 (2,802,507 viewers)' and 'Thor: Love and Thunder (2,591,365 viewers)', which each attracted over 2.5 million viewers, also showed promising starts with 266,516 viewers (June 15) and 382,190 viewers (July 6), respectively.

There is a case this year where a movie started similarly to 'Alien+In' Part 1 and became a hit. It is 'Top Gun: Maverick', released on the 22nd of last month. Although it only attracted 188,312 viewers on the first day, it reversed the trend in the second week and enjoyed long-term success. It ranks second in this year's box office with 5,989,182 viewers. Even in its fifth week, it remains in the top three at the box office. The driving force behind this turnaround is word of mouth. It shows overwhelming scores in audience satisfaction indicators such as CGV Golden Egg Index (99%), Lotte Cinema audience rating (9.8 points), and Megabox audience review (9.7 points).

'Alien+In' Part 1 seems unlikely to follow the same path. Its CGV Golden Egg Index is 86%, Lotte Cinema audience rating is 8.4 points, and Megabox audience review is 8.2 points. All are lower than those of 'Minions 2' (92%·9.0 points·8.7 points), which was released on the same day. The lukewarm atmosphere is also detected in seat sales rates. Although it occupied 52.4% of total theater seats, only 11.4% were sold. It did not even reach half of the competing 'Minions 2' (25.0%). Among seven films that secured more than 10,000 seats, it ranks sixth. Considering that the last place, 'The Outlaws 2' (9.4%), is in its 10th week since release, this is effectively the poorest performance.

Distributor CJ ENM is truly in an emergency. All three films released after the easing of social distancing measures are at risk of box office failure. The plan to dominate the theaters in June and July with 'Broker (1,259,198 viewers)', 'Decision to Leave (1,341,503 viewers)', and 'Alien+In' Part 1 has completely fallen apart. 'Broker' and 'Decision to Leave' are not severely affected due to smooth overseas rights sales. The situation is different for 'Alien+In' Part 1. Several film industry insiders agreed, saying, "The response from overseas buyers at the Cannes International Film Festival Film Market was lukewarm. They probably failed to secure contracts at the expected level."

However, a CJ ENM official stated, "We have already secured profits equivalent to producing a typical commercial film."

The net production cost of 'Alien+In' Part 1 is 33 billion won, the second highest ever. Poor box office performance could lead to another failure. A similarly scaled Part 2 is scheduled to be released next year.