VETERAN does great busines in its opening weekend in North America

Hwang Jung-min as Detective Seo Do-cheol

CJ Entertainment has announced impressive numbers for the opening weekend of Veteran – a hard-hitting thriller with a comedic touch from South Korean cult auteur Ryoo Seung-wan (Crying Fist, City of Violence). This is great news on two fronts. First, because Veteran is a great film that deserves to reach a wide audience. (See my highly laudatory review of Veteran here.) Secondly, any time an Asian film does well in it's North American theatrical release, it adds impetus for further distribution of the kinds of films us Asian cinema lovers want to see on the big screen, not just on home video.

Veteran opened in 46 theaters in the US and Canada to the tune of $339,328. The number puts Veteran on pace to top last year’s Ode to My Father, which went on to become the 2nd highest grossing Korean language film in North America at $2.3M).

Veteran ranked 6th in per screen average with $7,377, right behind major studio release Maze Runner: Scorch Trails ($7,887). Veteran out performed Pawn Sacrifice the Bobby Fischer bio-pic starring Tobey Magiuire (Spider-Man) and directed by Ed Zwick (Blood Diamond, Glory).

Veteran is currently the 6th highest grossing film of all time in South Korea with 12.8M in admissions ($85M at the box office) defeating The Assassination (12.6M – admissions, $83.2M – box office). Veteran is currently playing in 46 theaters in North America moving into its second weekend.

For more information, including a full list of theaters where the film will be playing, please visit: www.cj-entertainment.com.