Actor Yoo Hae Jin said that his core acting style has never changed, but the ability to create new images throughout his film career has helped him continuously achieve record box office revenue that very few actors in the Korean film industry can match.
The historical drama "The King's Warden" surpassed 12 million tickets on March 11, becoming Yoo Hae Jin's 5th film in his career to reach the milestone of 10 million tickets.
This achievement strengthens his position as a "box office guarantee" of Korean cinema, with a total of 170 million tickets sold throughout his 30-year career.
In the movie "The King's Warden", Yoo Hae Jin plays Eom Heung Do, village chief of Gwangcheongol in Yeongwol, Gangwon province - who has many interactions with exiled king Danjong (Park Ji Hoon).
Although the character played by Yoo Hae Jin is commented to be like a "model stepping out of history books", the 56-year-old actor appears very humble.
He said: "My acting is always the same. Nothing different. It's just Yoo Hae Jin.
I am not the type of actor who shows completely different acting styles. My biggest goal is to blend into the story and turn the dialogue into mine. When those things accumulate, the film will be complete”.
That effort is also shown in the way he works on the film set. Director Jang Hang Jun revealed the intense dedication of Yoo Hae Jin during filming, saying that he seemed to "never leave the script".
He cried even when there were no scenes, cried while preparing makeup, and when watching the trial screening, he almost sobbed because he was too immersed," director Jang recounted about Yoo Hae Jin.
Even after the film wrapped up a long time ago, Yoo Hae Jin still emotionally called this project "a particularly memorable work in many films I have participated in".
The on-screen harmony between him and his co-star Park Ji Hoon, who plays King Danjong, was built from meticulous observation. After paying attention to Park Ji Hoon's personality in real life, Yoo Hae Jin proposed a touching scene when the character Eom Heung Do quietly watches the young king play with water.
Box office warranty
Starting her career with a supporting role in the movie "Blackjack" in 1997, Yoo Hae Jin expanded her acting range from roles of commoners and gangsters, to roles of prosecutors, executives and kings.
With film genres ranging from comedy, romance, horror to historical films, he attracts an average of more than 3 million viewers per film.
His 5 blockbuster movies with a revenue of 10 million views include "The King and the Clown" (2005), "Veteran" (2015), "A Taxi Driver" (2017), "Exhuma" (2024) and "The King's Warden" (2026).
Film industry observers predict that "The King's Warden" may exceed 15 million tickets, aiming to break the domestic box office record held by "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" in 2014 with 17.61 million viewers.
Yoo Hae Jin also has a series of consecutive successes with "Confidential Assignment 2: International" reaching 6.98 million tickets, "The Night Owl" reaching 3.32 million tickets, or "Yadang: The Snitch" with 3.37 million tickets last year.
Yoo Hae Jin's success continues to be expected with the upcoming movie "The Assassins" directed by Hur Jin Ho, telling the story of the mastermind behind the assassination of former President Park Chung Hee's First Lady.
The film wrapped up at the end of last year with the participation of Park Hae-il and Lee Min Ho, in which Yoo Hae Jin played a police inspector who witnessed this event.
