This photo, provided by NEW, shows a still cut from animation movie “The First Slam Dunk”.
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The theatrical version of “Slam Dunk,” a popular comic in the 1990s, is catching the hearts of Koreans in their 30s and 40s.
Japanese basketball animation film “The First Slam Dunk” recorded a cumulative audience of 501,864 as of Wednesday, ranking second at the box office, according to the Korea Film Council.
Multiplex operator CJ CGV Co.’s booking data by age group showed that spectators in their 30s and 40s grabbed a share of 78.9 percent, with 63.1 percent of them men.
These figures are quite different than those for James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar: The Way of Water,” for which the share of those in their 30s and 40s stood at 55.3 percent and the share of female audience members stood at 55.3 percent.
The share of solo audience members has been particularly high for the theater version of “Slam Dunk” at 34.7 percent, about three times higher than “Avatar 2″ (12.5 percent).
The keywords behind the popularity of the animation movie among those in their 30s and 40s are “nostalgia” and “growth.”
The movie’s storyline, in which the main character grows from a basketball layman to a key player in defeating strong teams, stimulates the emotions of those in their 30s and 40s who have reached the age of feeling exhausted in life.
As the comic book that was popular during their school days came back in a theater version, the number of people who visit bookstores to buy the comic book is also on the rise.
According to online bookseller YES24, a special edition of “Slam Dunk,” which was released on the occasion of the opening of the movie, ranked No. 1 on the list of bestsellers on the first day of the new year.
The main purchasing group was people in their 30s and 40s who accounted for more than 87 percent of total purchases.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
