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It has been almost a year since Bong Joon Ho’s highly touted dystopian sci-fi Snowpiercer hit screens in its native South Korea, but last week, the most ambitious (and expensive) Korean film of all time finally arrived in US theaters following a protracted standoff with Harvey Weinstein over the final cut.

 

Following its positive reception around the world, the film earned overwhelmingly positive reviews from US critics and scored a strong per-theater average at the North American box office, though its release was limited to eight locations following a compromise with The Weinstein Company, whereby director Bong retained final cut but the film’s theatrical bow was downsized.

 

Already a hit around the world, Snowpiercer scored 9.35 million admissions during its release in Korea last summer and went on to amass over USD 10 million in China and USD 5 million in France. Following its opening on June 27th in North America, courtesy of TWC’s specialty label TWC-Radius, Bong’s film earned USD 171,187 during its first weekend, representing a healthy USD 21,938 per theater average, enough for number three on the PTA chart, behind Begin Again and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Though a good start, it remains to be seen if the film will maintain strong bookings if and when it expands to more theaters across the United States.

 

Positive reviews earned Snowpiercer a 94% Fresh rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Among positive notices, The New York Times singled out the film’s “steampunk décor and… …its grimly satirical look at the workings of power and privilege in a totalitarian corporate future.” Meanwhile, Salon.com, referring to it as “politically provocative and visually spectacular,” called it “the best action film of 2014, and probably the best film, period.”

 

Director Bong is not stranger to international acclaim following the success of his films Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006) and Mother (2009). His first English language production, Snowpiercer teamed him with actors Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, John Hurt and SONG Kang-ho.