[K-wave] Korean animation "The King of Kings" debuts at #2 in U.S. box office

한국 애니메이션 '예수의 생애', 북미 박스오피스 2위 돌풍

The animated biblical film "The King of Kings" stormed box offices in North America on its opening weekend, debuting at number 2. The film broke a decades-old box office record for an animated faith-based movie, earning an estimated 19 million dollars in its first week.
What might surprise you is that this is a Korean animated film.
Lee Eun-jin tells us more in this report.

The animated film "The King of Kings," created and produced by Korean studios and filmmakers, debuted at number 2 in the North American box office.
With its Korean title translating to "The Life of Jesus," this marks a milestone for a Korean animation on the global stage.
According to the U.S. tracking site Box Office Mojo, "The King of Kings" raked in 7-point-0-1 million U.S. dollars across 3,200 theaters in North America on its opening day on April 12th.
The film's opening weekend earnings surpassed 19-point-4 million dollars globally, making it the largest debut for an animated biblical movie since 1998's "The Prince of Egypt" and continued its success over the Easter weekend, bringing in 17-point-2 million dollars.


"From the outset, we targeted the North American market as our main target audience. The United States is a country founded by Puritans, and although it is not the same as it used to be, it is still a country with a strong Christian cultural tradition, so we were confident that this theme would resonate with audiences. That said, the success has been far greater than we anticipated, leaving us feeling a bit overwhelmed."

The story of the life of Jesus is well known, but it had never been made into a feature-length animated film for the theater.
Written and directed by Mofac Studio's CEO Jang Seong-ho, who was inspired by Charles Dickens' book, The Life of Our Lord, and tells the story of a father taking his youngest son on a journey through time, to restore their relationship.
To this fresh approach, Jang added extraordinary computer graphics and visual effects.

Director Jang endured a decade of rejections for investments to bring this film to theaters.
But it is now set to make its way around the world with anticipation high for its release in South American theaters
before it comes to Korea at the end of July.
Lee Eunjin, Arirang News.


Very timely release around Easter.
I can't wait to watch the movie myself.
I wish it would be prereleased here in Korea, after this bigger than expected success in North America.


That's pretty amazing. Soa, we recently talked about how Exorcism Chronicles surpassed 500,000 viewers, domestically and THAT is deemed a big number


But with "made in Korea" animations growing successfully abroad, we might see those numbers regularly hit millions, just like blockbusters like Parasite.


Can't wait for that to materialize.


"The King of Kings" meanwhile is set to be released in around 120 countries by the end of this year, we'll probably talk more about it later on.

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2025-04-22, 14:00 (KST)