SEOUL, July 27 — Peninsula, director Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie apocalypse blockbuster, extended its winning streak to a second weekend at South Korean cinemas while also leading the box office race in six other Asian markets, Yonhap News Agency reported according to data and the film’s distributor today.

According to data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Peninsula drew 470,026 moviegoers over the Saturday-Sunday period in South Korea, with the combined number of viewers reaching 2,862,894 since its July 15 opening.

According to distributor NEW, Peninsula, has been on top of the box office in six other Asian countries — Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Mongolia. The film has been sold to 185 nations and territories in total.

Starring Gang Dong-won and Lee Jung-hyun, Peninsula is the long-awaited sequel to Train to Busan, the top-grossing film in South Korea in 2016. Peninsula was selected for the official lineup of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The film tells a tale of survivors on the zombie-infested Korean peninsula four years after the events in Train to Busan.

It follows protagonist Jung-suk, who escaped the Korean Peninsula after the events of four years before, returning for a mission.

The industry is pinning its hopes on Peninsula and other upcoming big projects, such as Steel Rain 2: Summit, to break the awful dry spell of the local film industry decimated by Covid-19.

Steel Rain 2: Summit, a political-action film on geopolitics surrounding North Korea to hit theaters Wednesday, has accounted for 48 per cent of upcoming ticket reservations as of 9am, according to KOFIC.

In the January-June period of the year, box office admissions tumbled 70.3 per cent on-year to 32.4 million viewers, according to KOFIC.

Sales revenue plummeted 70.6 per cent to 273.8 billion won (RM970 million). — Bernama