Korea's leading webtoon writer Cho Seok's MOON YOU swept the Chinese theaters and created a box office sensation. Naver Webtoon reported that the movie 'MOON YOU', based on the sci-fi webtoon 'MOON YOU-獨行月球' by Cho Seok, is currently ranked 2nd at the Chinese box office for 2022.
The webtoon 'MOON YOU' is a sci-fi comedy about the struggles of an astronaut who is left alone on the moon after the human race on Earth has been destroyed by an asteroid impact. It is the work of writer Cho Seok, who is famous for 'The Sound of Your Heart' and ‘Tidal Territory’, and was serialized on Naver Webtoon from June 2016 to September 2017. It has been praised for showing the essence of black comedy by adding cynical humor and individualistic illustrations unique to Cho Seok along with the 'post-apocalyptic' worldview of the end of the world.
The release schedule of ‘The Sound of the Heart’, which was evaluated as a mega hit at the time, was adjusted from twice a week to once a week and as a new release following the mega hit, it attracted more than 10,000 comments on the first episode alone. Since June 2016, it has been translated into Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and English, and has proven its potential as a sci-fi black comedy webtoon, receiving high ratings in the upper 9s.
The webtoon-based film ‘MOON YOU-獨行月球’ was first released in China on July 29th. On the first day of its release, it recorded a profit of about 58.74 billion won and topped the Chinese box office. Analysts say that it has proven the strong competitiveness of the original webtoon's intellectual property rights (IP) as the box office continues to run while movie theater operations in China have not been normalized due to COVID-19. As of September 5, the film is expected to rank 2nd in China's box office record in 2022 with a revenue of about 580.3 billion won and 70.67 million .
'MOON YOU' writer Jo Seok said, "I am happy as the original author of 'MOON YOU' that it was able to revitalize Chinese theaters and achieve good results amid the COVID-19 pandemic. I realized that the status of Korean webtoon IP is increasing overseas as well as in Korea.”
The webtoon ‘MOON YOU’ can be viewed through Naver Webtoon and Naver series PC homepage, mobile web, and mobile application.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom