Marvel vs Magical... Ma Seok-do's response to Doctor Strange's 'Sunbread'? [Cinementary]

     Even if it has benefited from the lifting of social distancing, the initial momentum of "Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Chaos" is surprising.

Should I have known from the time when the number of pre-orders alone exceeded 1 million at the time of 'Who's name is a million?'

Among the films released this year, there are only two films that have seen more than a million viewers, "The Pirates" and "Fantastic Beasts and the Secret of Dumbledore".

More than a million people have seen it.

In the first week after opening, 3.81 million visitors, cumulative sales of 40.5 billion won.

"Doctor Strange 2" has already broken the records for the highest number of viewers (63,4962 people) and the highest number of viewers per day (682,609 people) since the Corona crisis set by "Spider-Man: No Way Home", and now the highest number of audiences (755). 10,000), the question of whether or not the record can be broken is the concern of the film industry.

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     Among the Marvel movies, especially

(Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel's cinematic setting world), whenever it is released in Korea, booking good seats in the IMAX theater has become a star in the sky.

"Doctor Strange 2" is the fifth film in MCU Phase 4.

The "Avengers" series ended with Phase 3, and Phase 4 introduces the so-called multiverse (multiverse) concept or setting in earnest.

It is difficult for those who are not very interested in Marvel movies, right?

Although it is a Marvel movie that mobilizes a huge audience every time it is released, the barriers to entry are surprisingly large.

Knowing the so-called 'MCU' doubles the fun.

Of course, there is no problem for people who have a loose understanding of the MCU like me.

You can see as much as you know, but you only need to make up your mind to understand as much as you can see.

'Entertainment as entertainment-, worldview as worldview-' is my idea.

"Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Chaos" grossed 230 billion won in its first week in the United States.

In the corona era alone, it is the second record after "Spider-Man: No Way Home", and overall, it is the fourth release in Marvel movie history after "Avengers: Endgame", "Avengers: Infinity War", and "Spider-Man". This is the main record.

     A Korean movie, which offers a box office challenge to this formidable film, will be released next week.

Another MCU movie, "Crime City 2".

What kind of MCU is it for Korean movies?

is.

It's called Ma Dong-seok's character in the movie, who plays a real man with a shabby appearance and big body like a cartoon, but sometimes plays a weak and weak-minded man, comparing the movie to the MCU.

The first "Crime City", released in 2017, broke expectations and spread word of mouth, drawing 6.87 million viewers and rising to the 3rd place in the box office of all-time 'Blue and Blue Movies'.

(1st place "Inside Men", 2nd place "Friends") "Doctor Strange 1", which was released in the previous year, mobilized 5.44 million viewers, so it could be said that it was a victory for the native MCU.

  "Crime City 2", which will be released this time, has expanded its scale to include a Vietnamese location thanks to the success of its previous work.

Compared to the previous film, which had a slightly low-budget atmosphere and was relatively dark, the movie came out with a bit more comical but also increased pleasure and difficulty of action.

(However, it is still inconvenient to use an excessively cruel knife) A full-scale destruction, action, action that seems to break the frustration of the corona era at once.

I'd say it's a movie.

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     Ma Dong-seok's status has changed a lot in the five years since the first episode.

Ma Dong-seok made his name as a global action actor last year as he played Gilgamesh in "The Eternals", the third movie of the actual MCU Phase 4.

Maybe that's why, in the sequel, the magic stone that was already captured in the first part also strengthened the detective character.

In the 2nd episode, which can be said to have clearly turned Ma Dong-seok himself into a genre, he not only produced the lead role but also produced it.

At a press conference after finishing the premiere of "Crime City 2", Ma Dong-seok said, "From the beginning, I envisioned 8 franchises centered on detective Ma Seok-do."

At this point, it will be the real Ma Dong-seok Cinematic Universe, right?

However, in this second box office showdown in which "Crime City 2" is chasing as a latecomer, "Doctor Strange" runs so far ahead that it is difficult to predict the outcome.

'Wanpanchi' has good magic power, but Doctor Strange's 'magic' doesn't seem to allow easy overtaking.

     However, what the film industry pays attention to is that both films are successful at the box office, but in fact, how many spectators are drawn to the theater and how much wind is driving the summer market?

The summer season, the biggest theater scene of the year, is key.

On the 15th of last month, at the 'Debate on how to overcome the crisis in the Korean film industry' hosted by the Korea Film Council on the 15th of last month, Director Young-yong Cho of the CJ Film Contents Bureau said, "This summer is the last and golden opportunity for the recovery of the film market."

  Last year, the number of audiences and sales of Korean films shrank by one-third compared to before the corona virus.

In the case of the United States, the summer peak season market, which averaged 5.130 trillion won before the corona crisis, shrank to 220 billion won in 2020, but recovered to 2.24 trillion won last year.

However, it is still less than half of its heyday.

"The success of Doctor Strange 2 is a very important step to bring the summer market back to pre-COVID-19," said Paul De Garrabedian, senior analyst at ComScore, a media market research firm.

However, the market is still uncertain.

Corona aftershocks are also aftershocks, but this is because there are also habits of content consumption by the audience that have changed due to the corona virus.

Whether audiences, accustomed to watching, watching, driving, and watching alone, on streaming services, will react to high-profile blockbuster and small-medium films, and whether they will return to expensive and sold-out theaters, is a big concern in the film industry.

     "Hollywood is showing off its strength this summer, trying to put theater viewing back into an important part of our lives," Kendall Phillips, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, told Axios.

They say they are going to release the best Hollywood content that they have been collecting for the summer market.

"Hollywood is betting that Americans are ready to return to dark theaters with popcorn again," he adds, so in the US, following "Takter Strange: The Chaos Multiverse", Tom Cruise is piloting again after 36 years. "Top Gun: Maverick", which returns to "Top Gun: Maverick", and "Bob's Burgers", a movie adaptation of the popular animated series, are released during the Memorial Day season, and in June in Korea, "The Broker" by Hirokazu Koreeda and Kang-ho Song, "The Decision to Break Up" by director Chan-wook Park. After heavy-duty films such as "Hansan: The Appearance of the Dragon" and "Alien + Human" by Korea's top box office director Choi Dong-hoon, it moves on to summer blockbuster films such as "Alien + Human."