BTS’ Seoul concert scores more than $32 million at global box office–report

In this photo provided by Hybe, fans watch one of South Korean boy group BTS’ three in-person concerts live in Seoul at a Lotte Cinema theater in southern Seoul on Saturday. (Hybe via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network)

SEOUL — The second of K-pop supergroup BTS’s three concerts in Seoul has raked in more than $32 million from movie theaters across the world, where fans in different countries were able to watch it live, according to a report by a US entertainment magazine.

“BTS Permission To Dance On Stage – Seoul” was held Saturday as one of the septet’s first shows before a live audience in its home country since 2019 and accumulated $32.6 million from 3,711 theaters in 75 countries around the world, Variety said on Sunday (US time).

The first and third shows were held on Thursday and Sunday, respectively.

The magazine called them “blockbuster results,” adding the second-night show played in 803 theaters and earned roughly $6.84 million in North America alone.

In the United States and Canada, tickets went for $35, which is almost four times the average $9 ticket price in the region. But multiplexes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston and Chicago were busy, with many reporting multiple sold-out screenings, according to the report.

It said the BTS concert also landed in third place behind Robert Pattinson’s superhero adventure “The Batman,” which collected $66 million from 4,417 venues over the weekend, and Tom Holland’s “Uncharted,” which generated $9.2 million from 3,725 locations over the weekend.

Variety quoted Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with the US-based market research firm Comscore, as calling the BTS show’s global box-office figures “astonishing” and “unprecedented.”

“It’s a testament to both the overwhelmingly dedicated fandom of the ARMY and the overall return to cinemas on a global scale,” Marc Allenby, CEO of the show’s North American distributer Trafalgar Releasing, was quoted as saying. (Yonhap)

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