Two Korean films, The King's Warden and Humint, are competing for the top spot at the domestic box office during the Lunar New Year holiday. The King's Warden leads with a 44 percent advance ticket sales rate, ahead of Humint's 28.7 percent. The historical drama and action thriller are drawing significant attention from audiences.
Data from February 14, 2026, shows that The King's Warden, a historical drama, is topping the box office charts. Directed by Jang Hang-jun, the film has attracted nearly 1.5 million viewers since its February 4 release, marking the first Korean movie this year to surpass the 1 million admissions milestone. The story reimagines historical events through a fictional lens, depicting the unlikely friendship between village chief Eom Heung-do (Yoo Hai-jin) and the young deposed King Danjong (Park Ji-hoon) during his exile in the village.
In second place is Ryoo Seung-wan's action thriller Humint, which has drawn a cumulative audience of 304,738 since its Wednesday release. Short for human intelligence, Humint follows Manager Cho (Zo In-sung), a South Korean national intelligence officer, who forms an unlikely cooperation with North Korean intelligence officer Park Gun to save his crucial informant Chae Sun-hwa (Shin Se-kyung).
The extended Lunar New Year holiday began on Saturday, February 14, and runs through Wednesday, with the holiday falling on Tuesday. Advance ticket sales rates as of 9 a.m. stand at 44 percent for The King's Warden and 28.7 percent for Humint. The competition between the two films is expected to intensify over the holiday period.
