On February 13, according to distributor Plus M Entertainment, the Korean film "Bogota: City of the Lost" directed by Kim Sung Jae recorded 13 million views from February 3-9, winning the No. 1 position in the ranking of the most popular non-English-speaking films of the week on Netflix globally.
In fact, "Bogota: City of the Lost" ranked second in terms of views on Netflix's overall ranking of English-language and non-English-language films, behind only the American comedy "Kinda Pregnant."
Netflix statistics show that "Bogota: City of the Lost" topped the platform in 10 countries, including South Korea and Colombia - the film's setting - and entered the top 10 in a total of 73 countries.
“Bogota: City of the Lost” tells the story of Guk Hee (Song Joong Ki), who travels to Bogota, Colombia in hopes of a new life after the IMF crisis. There, he becomes entangled in relationships with Soo Young (Lee Hee Joon) and Byeong Jang Park (Kwon Hae Hyo), powerful figures in Bogota’s Korean community.
“Bogota: City of the Lost” was released in South Korea on December 31, 2024. At that time, the film ranked second at the box office in its first week and dropped to eighth place in its second week. By its third week, it had fallen out of the top 10.
During a theater audience meeting in January, Song Joong Ki shed tears as he shared about the general difficulties of the Korean film industry. He felt grateful that his film was still released in theaters, so he worked hard to promote his work.
Besides, the actor confided that although the film industry is facing difficulties, the role of an actor is to "create good content to comfort the audience and make them laugh in dark times". He is grateful to the audience who have supported him.
But in the end, the film only sold 420,000 tickets, while the break-even point was 3 million tickets with a production budget of 12.5 billion won.
Despite a box office failure at home, “Bogota: City of the Lost” has bounced back after debuting on global streaming platform Netflix.
According to Wikitree, this film is the work that marked a turning point in Song Joong Ki's acting career. Filming began in 2019, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took 5 years for the film to reach the audience.
The production team revealed that they had Song Joong Ki in mind for the role of Guk Hee from the very beginning of the planning stage. Song Joong Ki also prepared thoroughly for the work by traveling to Bogota with the crew before filming, to get acquainted with the local atmosphere and research his character.
The film's reception on the leading online platform once again proves the global reputation of Song Joong Ki - a famous star through many previous works such as "A Werewolf Boy", "Descendants of the Sun", "Vincenzo", "The Youngest Son of a Tycoon"...
Wikitree emphasizes that the dramatic change in the journey to conquer audiences of "Bogota: City of the Lost" has great significance for the Korean film industry. This is an example showing that, unlike the theater industry, which has been in decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean content is still competitive in the OTT (online service) market.
Song Joong Ki's work is also a typical example of the change in the media environment, where the success of content cannot be reflected solely through box office revenue.
On the other hand, many viewers were upset because Song Joong Ki seemed to be "drowned" in many Korean media outlets. The climax was the article by Ten Asia comparing the sales of "Bogota: City of the Lost" with the movie "Dark Nuns" starring Song Hye Kyo - Song Joong Ki's ex-wife, which was heavily criticized.
