How much can the casting of a popular star drive a film's box office? In South Korea, Kim Soo-hyun may have provided the answer.
Early last month, the drama-comedy Secretly Greatly, in which the actor-model-singer plays a North Korean spy, enjoyed the biggest opening in South Korean film history. It set a record for ticket sales in a single day (919,027 admissions), and its overall total of just under 7 million admissions gives it the equivalent of US$43.3 million in revenue.
Virtually all commentators have cited Kim's popularity as the biggest reason behind the movie's success - all this for a 25-year-old in his first leading film role.
Kim has been turning heads at home since the 2011 TV drama musical Dream High, in which he stars alongside some of the top names in K-pop including miss A's Suzy and 2PM's Taecyeon. In early 2012 he played a king in the explosively popular TV drama Moon Embracing the Sun, which attained a 42.3 per cent viewership and made him a household name.