The cast of ″The Roundup: Punishment″ celebrates reaching the 5-million-ticket mark. [ABO ENTERTAINMENT]

 
“The Roundup: Punishment” surpassed 5 million admissions in just one week after its release, racing to become the third film in “The Roundup” franchise to hit the 10 million admissions mark.
 
The film had logged 5,005,664 admissions as of Tuesday afternoon, becoming the fastest film released in 2024 according to the Korea Box Office Information System (Kobis), becoming the fastest film released in 2024 to surpass the 5-million-ticket mark. The previous record was held by “Exhuma,” which reached the milestone within 10 days of release.
 
“The Roundup: Punishment” also beat the record set by “The Roundup” (2022), which is the most popular movie in the series as of now. 
 
The latest “The Roundup” installment is also seeing the highest number of daily viewers of the whole series, also surpassing the previous record held by “The Roundup.”
 
“The Roundup: Punishment” hit 861,922 viewers on its release date and hit the 1 million mark the next day.
 

In ″The Roundup,″ a monster detective named Ma Seok-do, left, puts a helmet on a criminal. The ensuing intense interrogation process has become a trademark along with the line, ″To the room of truth.″ [ABO Entertainment]

Rather than an army of producers, directors, and large corporations — as is typical of blockbuster films — “The Roundup” was entirely planned, produced and dramatized by 53-year-old actor Don Lee, who also stars in the series. Lee is also known as Ma Dong-seok in Korea.
 
Lee proved his 10-million-strong ticket power with his work on films such as “Train to Busan” (2016), both installments of “Along With the Gods” (2017, 2018) and “Veteran” (2015).
 
“The goal is to reach the break-even point,” he said in an interview with JoongAng Ilbo on April 18 ahead of the film’s release. “The Roundup: Punishment” topped that break-even point of 3.5 million on April 28 after five days.
 

Park Ji-hwan, left, and Ma Dong-seok. [ABO Entertainment]

 
In this fourth installment, detective Ma Seok-do, played by Lee, once again sweeps away crime with an iron fist. Actor Park Ji-hwan reprises the role of the Korean Chinese ex-gangster Jang Yi-soo. He gets more screen time than he did in the previous film, returning with a refreshing sense of humor.

BY CHO MUN-GYU [chomg@joongang.co.kr]