Reasons “Wonderland” Failed To Become Box Office Hit Despite Its Splendid Cast

Depicting the story of people using the video call service ‘Wonderland’ to restore dead people using AI technology, “Wonderland” topped the box office right after its premiere on June 5th. However, as soon as Disney & Pixar’s aminated movie “Inside Out 2” was released, “Wonderland” immediately lost its top spot. The day after the premiere day, “Wonderland” recorded the highest number of daily admissions (136.228 viewers) but attracted only 164,816 viewers in the first week.

Despite arousing keen attention ever since its preparation stage with a splendid cast lineup of Suzy, Park Bo-gum, Jung Yoo-mi, Choi Woo-sik, Tang Wei and the special appearance of Gong Yoo, “Wonderland” still failed to create a hit. Many viewers poured criticism, saying “With so many good actors, they could only make a movie like this?”. According to reviews, the message of the film was not conveyed clearly to viewers due to distracting developments, making it difficult for viewers to immerse themselves in the story.

There are five main characters in “Wonderland”. Suzy and Park Bo-gum played a couple, while Jung Yoo-mi and Choi Woo-sik were developers and operators of the ‘Wonderland’ service. Tang Wei starred in the film as Bai Li, a mother who commissioned the service so that she could talk to her daughter even after being dead. However, the characters couldn’t persuade the audience because their background narratives were not explained in detail. In addition, some pointed out that the stories of the main characters did not connect to or intertwine with each other.

Although Suzy and Park Bo-gum were the most popular among the cast, Tang Wei was considered the top leading actress in the movie. Having a lot of Chinese lines and screen time, Tang Wei affectionately portrayed a story about mother’s love. However, it was difficult for Korean viewers to understand the subtle atmosphere and detailed nuances. 

Completing its filming in 2020, “Wonderland” was belatedly released due to the COVID-19 pandemic period. Within those four years, technology has advanced a lot and AI has also become so familiar to people. Nevertheless, the developments in “Wonderland” became easy to guess and slow. In short, it failed to make good use of its materials and take advantage of the timing to premiere.

While “Inside Out 2” is expected to become much more popular in the following week, “Wonderland”, which was finally introduced after a long time, ended up being pushed behind quietly.