Disney Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur' Racks Up Box Office Numbers In South Korea, Trumps 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

One of the recently released films in South Korea, Disney Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur," was able to achieve massive box office numbers during its opening weekend in South Korea, Korea Joong Ang Daily noted.

According to Peter Sohn, the Korean-American filmmaker who directed the film, the movie's scenic backgrounds were thoroughly worked on to become "very realistic."

"It's not like we go in with a formula. It's an evolution about what the movie can be. ... In the world of family films, they have a way of becoming what they want to be," Sohn said. 

The film was able to attract more than 458,000 movie goers and was able to earn $2.9 million (3.5 billion won).

While all other countries in the world were celebrating the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," South Korea seemed to be defying the film's trend by putting it behind "The Good Dinosaur" in terms of ranking, Korea Joong Ang Daily reported Friday.

In North America, "The Force Awakens" was perceived to be the highest-grossing film of all time, and it became the most saleable movie in China after it was released to the public for viewing. However, in South Korea, the 135-minute sci-fi film was not able to make it to the top despite several promotional events by the director and the cast.

The report noted that "The Force Awakens" was even outperformed by Park Jung Hoon's "The Tiger" and Lee Seok Hoon's adventure film entitled "The Himalayas."

"Korean moviegoers perceived the film as fantasy, which is one of the unpopular genres," said Kang Yoo Jung, a film critic and columnist in South Korea. "The simple structure of good versus the evil wasn't appealing to Korean moviegoers."

Film critic Jeng Ji Ouk added that most Koreans have hesitations in sympathizing stories without any sentimental element.