Neon's Park Chan-Wook film, 'No Other Choice', is set to become the second highest-grossing Korean release in the U.S., poised to topple the director's own top-grossing picture worldwide, 'The Handmaiden'. This dark comedy, about a laid-off paper factory manager in Busan, South Korea, who takes out the competition, has already surpassed Park's previous hit, 'Oldboy', at the domestic box office with $4.2 million in earnings. The movie is currently holding strong in its limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Seattle, with a pace similar to A24's 'Past Lives' and Neon's own 'Anora'.
Sources indicate that 'No Other Choice' is on track to reach a domestic total in the teen-millions, becoming the second highest-grossing South Korean title after Neon's multi-Oscar-winning 'Parasite' and ahead of 'Dragon Wars'. The film is attracting upscale, sophisticated adults and twentysomethings, with solid performances in Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento, and Raleigh, NC. The movie has also been boosted by an Imax release, playing at 700 sites in its fourth weekend.
If 'No Other Choice' scores an Oscar nomination next Thursday, it will be Park's first ever. Worldwide, the film has a shot at becoming the director's highest-grossing movie at the global box office, surpassing 'The Handmaiden's' $38M worldwide earnings. The current global cumulative total for 'No Other Choice' is close to $27M.
Tom Quinn, Neon's CEO and co-founder, reflects on the impact of 'Oldboy' on his career, saying it changed the way he thought about film and what was possible. Quinn initially tried to buy 'Oldboy' three times, eventually winning the rights for the 20th anniversary rerelease in 2023, which outgrossed the original domestic release. The first collaboration between Quinn and Park was on Bong Joon Ho's 2013 sci-fi movie, 'Snowpiercer', which grossed over $82M worldwide.
'No Other Choice' is based on Donald E. Westlake's 1997 novel 'The Ax'. The film received a nine-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the 82nd Venice Film Festival and went on to win the inaugural International People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Neon secured the rights before the festival run. The movie has also been nominated for Best Picture at the Gotham Awards and Foreign Language Film at the Critics Choice Awards, with both awards bodies also nominating the adapted screenplay credited to Park, Lee Kyoung-mi, Jahye Lee, and Don McKellar.
