The movie “Bogota: City of the Lost” (starring Song Joong Ki, Lee Hee Jun, Kwon Hae Hyo) cost 12.5 billion won to produce and needed to sell 3 million tickets to break even. But as of January 17, the movie had only sold 410,000 tickets, and it is predicted that it will be difficult to sell more than 500,000 tickets.
Song Joong Ki has had two consecutive movies that failed in terms of revenue, “Hopeless” released last year (only sold 264,000 tickets), this year it is “Bogota”.
To the point, there are rumors that "Song Joong Ki will ruin his career if he continues to act in movies".
During the final promotional event for “Bogota” on January 12, Song Joong Ki shed tears because of the general difficult situation of Korean cinema, as well as the poor revenue of his work.
“Given the current difficult situation, I feel grateful that at least my film is being released in theaters. Therefore, I have been working harder than ever to promote the film. Even though there are many shortcomings and criticism, I am still trying to improve the situation,” the actor said.
However, according to Newsen, not only “Bogota” or “Hopeless”, but most of Song Joong Ki's movies failed, except for “Werewolf Boy” released in 2012. Although he had a successful television career with many hit works.
Newsen believes that the first thing that caused Song Joong Ki to continuously fail on the big screen was his poor ability to choose scripts that did not match his image.
In movies, he mainly plays dark characters or edgy roles such as in "The Wolf Boy", "Battleship Island", "Hopeless", "My Name is Loh Kiwan", "Bogota: City of the Lost"...
It is unclear whether Song Joong Ki's intention was to erase the romantic, scholarly image in previous TV dramas. But the truth is that many of Song Joong Ki's new images on the big screen cannot make the audience sympathize.
Newsen commented that Song Joong Ki used to have “charm and intelligence that radiated through his innocent face and deep voice”. But now, he is like a “chef who makes a mistake in the recipe even though he still has good ingredients”.
The second thing Newsen pointed out is that Song Joong Ki seems to show off his wife and children more than promote the movie.
After divorcing Song Hye Kyo in 2019, in 2023, Song Joong Ki married a second time with British actress Katie Louise Saunders. They later welcomed a son and a daughter.
In particular, with the birth of his second daughter last November, Song Joong Ki could not hide his joy. While promoting the movie "Botaga" on many TV shows and talk shows such as "The Seasons - Lee Young Ji's Rainbow", "I'm Choi Hwa Jung", "Perfect Day with Lee Sang Soon"... Song Joong Ki continuously bragged about his wife and children.
To the point that a series of articles all claimed that the main focus of these programs was "Song Joong Ki praising his wife and showing off his children".
“There is nothing wrong with a husband and father loving his wife and children, but given the promotional schedule for “Bogota,” this unclear focus is unfortunate,” Newsen wrote.
