Sold-out screens and a franchise-best first day end 'Hope's' reign at No. 1, giving Marvel its first real sign of life here in years "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" (Sony Pictures Korea) "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" opened in Korea on Wednesday to the kinds of crowds local theaters haven't seen in a long while, with multiplexes packed throughout the day and prime showtimes sold out well in advance.The Marvel sequel sold 688,381 tickets on Wednesday, according to the Korean Film Council's tracking service, making it the biggest opening day for any film released here since the start of 2025, and the best first day the Tom Holland series has ever posted, edging out 2019's "Far From Home" (674,432).The film, which premiered in Korea two days ahead of its North American debut, had been building toward this for weeks. By Wednesday morning, it had topped the presale chart for 11 straight days and had moved more than 930,000 tickets — 73 percent of all tickets booked and a record for any release this year.The timing worked in its favor, too, as the opening fell on Culture Day, Korea's monthly government-backed initiative that cuts evening ticket prices on the last Wednesday of every month.The debut ended the two-week reign of Na Hong-jin's "Hope," which had led the daily chart for 14 consecutive days. The blockbuster, which premiered at Cannes in May, slipped to second with 87,948 admissions, bringing its total to 3.71 million.Early scores suggest viewers are largely along for the ride. The film holds a 3.8 out of 5 on local review aggregator Watcha, well ahead of the two homegrown juggernauts that have carried the box office this year — "Hope" (3.2) and Yeon Sang-ho's "Colony" (3.0), which opened back in May.Much of the praise has centered on how small the film is willing to play. Reviewers have pointed to its focus on a lonelier, more grounded Peter Parker — estranged from those closest to him and wrestling with powers he can't rein in — as a return to the character-driven storytelling that made the series click in the first place, even as some found it heavier and less playful than its predecessors.Korea has long been one of Marvel's most devoted markets — Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige once called it the studio's second-biggest international market after China — with a loyal fan base few American mega-franchises have managed to build here. While the likes of "Superman" and "Star Wars" have historically struggled in Korea, Marvel films have tended to open big and stick around for weeks.In a country that counts the box office in admissions rather than gross revenue and treats 10 million tickets as the benchmark for a megahit, the studio's biggest titles have come close to that bar or cleared it outright time and again. "Iron Man 3" (2013) sold 9 million tickets and "Captain America: Civil War" (2016) 8.68 million, each ranking as the year's top foreign release. "Iron Man 3" (Sony Pictures Korea) The Avengers films went further still: three straight entries crossed 10 million, capped by "Endgame," which sold 13.9 million in 2019 and remains the most-watched foreign release in the country's history.The Spider-Man films have held their own in that vein, keeping pace with and at times outrunning their global numbers. "Homecoming," Holland's first solo outing, drew 7.26 million admissions in 2017 against $880 million worldwide; "Far From Home" hit 8.02 million in 2019 as it passed $1.1 billion globally.Most impressive of all was 2021's "No Way Home." A monster hit worldwide at nearly $2 billion, it sold 7.55 million tickets to become Korea's most-watched film of the year, at a time when moviegoing had sunk to historic lows. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (Sony Pictures Korea) In the years since, though, Marvel has largely lost its hold on the market. As superhero movies slumped worldwide under a run of middling sequels and spinoffs, the fatigue has cut especially deep in Korea, where attendance has been slower to bounce back than in almost any other country.The three MCU titles that reached Korean screens last year told the story. "Captain America: Brave New World" managed 1.65 million admissions and "Thunderbolts*" just 922,000, in line with their soft runs worldwide.The biggest embarrassment was "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," which had been billed as the studio's return to form. A solid performer in North America with $274 million, it drew just 590,863 tickets in Korea — the kind of number usually associated with low-budget indies. "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" (The Walt Disney Company Korea) Whether "Brand New Day" can hold its opening crowds will say a lot about the studio's chances of a comeback here. December brings the bigger test: "Avengers: Doomsday" marks the return of a series that was once the closest thing to a sure bet this market had.The first Avengers film in seven years, "Doomsday" brings Robert Downey Jr. back to the franchise as the villain Doctor Doom, with a reported running time of two hours and 45 minutes. It is locked in for a Dec. 18 opening in the US; Walt Disney Company Korea, which will handle the release here, has yet to set a local date.