Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise recently shook the Hallyu stage by joining forces with South Korean singer Jin of BTS, who is fondly known to fans as ‘Worldwide Handsome.’ The unexpected two-some collaboration consolidated his stance as a “K-pop stan.” Just weeks ago, the high-action icon, who is notoriously famous for crafting his mind-boggling, adrenaline-high stunts, came down to guest star on the beloved K-pop idol’s online entertainment show, Run Jin, to promote the final outing of his flagship movie franchise, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
Despite the “Mission: JIN-possible” undertaking in May, this wasn’t Tom Cruise’s K-pop initiation. He actually locked horns with the South Korean entertainment industry back in 2022 while making headlines for his other iconic film appearance, Top Gun: Maverick. Flaunting cutesy gestures, or as the well-verse K-pop stans call it ‘aegyo,’ he was even seen sharing the frame with AleXa at the action drama film’s premiere in South Korea.
K-pop’s GOT7 Jinyoung vs Tom Cruise: South Korea box office
Cut to June 2025, the Hollywood hunk has changed shades and is tussling it out with a K-pop idol at the Korean box office, instead of shaking hands with him. Third-generation K-pop fans familiar with the GOT7 fever will be happy to know that one of their favourite artists slipped past the reigning Hollywood champion in the movie biz this past weekend.
Arriving in South Korean theatres on May 17, Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning locked an early landing compared to the star-studded Korean cinematic debut of Hi-Five. The star-studded action comedy fantasy film rolled out two weeks later on May 30, 2025.
K-drama lovers especially can’t afford to miss out on the blockbuster as it catches households names like Ra Mi Ran (The Good Bad Mother), Lee Jae In (Our Unwritten Seoul), Ahn Jae Hong (The Mask Girl), Kim Hee Won (Misaeng), Oh Jung Se (Revenant), and most importantly Park Jinyoung aka GOT7’s Jinyoung (The Devil Judge) in action. Pushing past his off-screen controversies, even actor Yoo Ah In (Hellbound) returned to the big screen, two years after he was indicted for illegal drug use.
With Hi-Five or Hi5 movie taking over the silver screens back home, the Korean outing cracked open what otherwise may have seemed like an impossible mission. Leaving Cruise’s Final Reckoning behind, the K-film raced to the top, all thanks to the whopping number of admissions in theatres.
Korea box office: Top 2 films this past weekend
According to Korean Film Council’s tracking service Kobis, the GOT7 Jinyoung-starrer release earned $2.6 million from 380,334 moviegoers across 1,211 screens. Meanwhile, the latest and final Mission Impossible slipped to No. 2 despite adding $2.67 million. Those wondering why the Tom Cruise premiere was shot down even while staying ahead of Hi-Five in earnings, should shift their gaze to the admissions. Contrary to its higher box office gross, the Hollywood film saw a slightly smaller number of moviegoers this week and recorded 370,876 admissions.
Adding up these numbers to the previous collection, the American action thriller hit a cumulative total of $17.7 million thanks to more 2.47 million admission since May 17, as per Variety.
Other Korean movies starring K-drama actors in the lead
Trailing behind Jinyoung and Cruise, K-movie Big Deal debuted at third place with a box office collection of $932,024 from 131,626 admissions across 1,040 screens. The film sees leading South Korean actors Yoo Hae Jin (Exhuma) and Le Je Hoon (Taxi Driver) at the centre of a plot set during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
In at No. 9, another Korean release, The Pact couldn’t have made waves at a better time than the eve of South Korea’s presidential election. The occult political thriller exploring former first lady’s controversies brought in $99,676 from a single day post its big-screen premiere by opening doors to 12,832 moviegoers.
The final homegrown feature on the Top 10 box office list was Yadang: The Snitch, which settled in at No. 8. The slow-burn crime thriller sparked audience’s interest in April, with K-drama men Kang Ha Neul (Tastefully Yours), Yoo Hae Jin, Park Hae Joon (When Life Gives You Tangerines) and Ryu Kyung Soo (Our Unwritten Seoul) at the forefront.
As one of the highest-grossing South Korean films of 2025, it pooled in $95,082 to its existing gross, bringing the total up to $23.2 million with 3.36 million viewers having enjoyed it in theatres over the months-long box office record.
Other films to round out the Top 10 at the South Korean box office were: Disney’s Lilo & Stitch (#4), Japan’s Magic Candies (#5), another Japanese animation Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing (#6), Michael B Jordan-led Sinners (#7) and animated film The Bad Guys (#10).