Possible Love Release Date: U.S. Oct 23, Netflix Nov 6

Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love has grossed $908,728 from 115,938 admissions in South Korea in its first five days, and it opens in American theaters on October 23, 24 days from now.

The figures come from Screen Daily's report on the Chuseok holiday box office. The film opened September 23 on 195 screens, box office reports show, and finished the holiday weekend in the top five behind Hur Jin-ho's The Assassin(s), which took roughly 40 percent of the market, and Tazza: The Song of Belzebub, whose cumulative gross had reached $6.3 million.

For a Lee film, the start is modest in raw numbers. Screen Daily notes that his biggest Korean hit remains Secret Sunshine (2007), which earned $7.6 million, while Burning (2018) took $3.5 million. Possible Love opened into a holiday slate crowded with a long-awaited Tazza sequel and a new Hur Jin-ho film, which limits how far the early total can be read as a verdict.

The film arrives with awards attention that neither of those earlier titles carried on opening day. Possible Love won the Silver Lion, the Grand Jury Prize, at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on September 12, according to Variety. South Korea has also selected it as its submission for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards, which will be held in Los Angeles on March 14, 2027. A submission is not a nomination, and the film has not been shortlisted.

The film is Lee's first in eight years, since Burning. Written by Lee with his longtime collaborator Oh Jung-mi, it follows two married couples whose lives collide when Ye-ji, one of the characters, includes Ho-seok in a documentary about laid-off workers, according to UPI's account of the official synopsis. Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong star. Jeon won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for Lee's Secret Sunshine.

Sul, reuniting with Lee more than two decades after Oasis, called the collaboration "Lee Chang Dong magic," allkpop reported, describing how the director pushed him to reconsider every aspect of his performance.

The film is a co-production of South Korea's Pinehouse Film and Nowfilm with the American company Anonymous Content, and it is backed by Netflix. The release plan follows a theatrical-first path. Variety reports that the film opens in theaters in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan on October 23 (Australia follows a day earlier, on October 22), and it reaches Netflix worldwide on November 6. Netflix is also rolling out a group of Lee's earlier films globally after the Venice win, Variety reported.

That timing gives American audiences a two-week window to see the film on a big screen before it moves to streaming. The theatrical run is described as limited, and BroadwayWorld says it will play in "select theaters." Theater lists have not been published in the sources reviewed.

Lee is also due to receive the Ebert Director Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, according to allkpop, which describes him as the first Korean filmmaker to receive it.

For Korean audiences, the question is whether word of mouth from Venice and the Oscar submission lifts the film beyond its holiday opening. For U.S. readers, the film's next milestone is October 23.