A month after its release, the film Victory has risen to the top of the box office, but the sudden surge in ticket sales has caused some to cry foul. However, its production company was swift to deny the allegations, dismissing them as "unfounded."

The Korean Film Council's database states that on Sept. 11, Victory drew in 13,602 viewers and seized the No. 1 spot at the box office for their second consecutive day, when it had averaged about 10,000 viewers a day.

Victory opened its debut with 36,258 viewers but, as a result, fell to fifth place first and then slipped to eighth.

However, its recent rise has reportedly raised suspicions of "manipulation."

Victory, starring Hyeri, is centered around the utopic background of a vigorous cheerleading group, the Millennium Girls.

The backlash against the ticket-buying allegations also fits in with Hyeri's recent marketing effort, which has been in the limelight.

Hyeri expressed thanks to her fans for their passionate support of the movie on SNS, sharing an example of a humorous comment to her Instagram post, "Your PPL to a movie with you in it."

On Sept. 12, as rumors of ticket-buying spread, Victory's production company, Mindmark, issued a statement in Korean on the production company's official website and its IMDb page explicitly denying the allegations.

"The rumors regarding Victory are completely unfounded," Mindmark stated. The company explained that the recent increase in viewers was due to the "group movie reservations from companies and organizations."

"All week's viewers, mostly on weekdays, were all planned and booked in advance, resulting in a larger number of viewers. However, the public ticketing site is normally shut down as these are all private book-in customers, so the misunderstanding started when it appeared as part of the public ticketing site. But even so, Victory is doing well at the box office, and the production team expressed its gratitude to the fans for their support. Thank you for the continued interest and support for Victory,"they said.

Victory is still being shown at movie theaters, and they hope the positive atmosphere will continue through the holidays.

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This article was written by:

Rovelyn Barba