Box office
Parasite grossed $71.4 million in South Korea, $53.4 million in the US and Canada, and $133.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $258.7 million.[7][86] It set a new record for Bong, becoming the first of his films to gross over $100 million worldwide.[87] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit as $46.2 million.[6]
In South Korea, Parasite grossed $20.7 million on its opening weekend.[86] It closed its box-office run with $72.2 million and more than 10 million admissions, equal to roughly one-fifth of the country's population and ranking first among the year's top five films.[88][89]
In the film's US opening weekend, it grossed $376,264 from three cinemas. Its per-venue average of $125,421 was the best since La La Land's in 2016, and the best ever for an international film.[90] It expanded to 33 cinemas in its second weekend, making $1.24 million,[91] and then made $1.8 million from 129 cinemas in its third.[92] The film made $2.5 million in its fourth weekend and $2.6 million in its fifth.[93] Its initial showings count peaked in its sixth weekend at 620, when it made $1.9 million.[94] It continued to hold well over the following weekends, making $1.3 million and then $1 million.[95][96]
In its tenth week of release the film crossed the $20 million mark (rare for an international film), making $632,500 from 306 cinemas.[97] During the weekend of the Oscars, the film made $1.5 million from 1,060 cinemas for a running total of $35.5 million.[98] After Neon's doubling of showings in the week after the Academy Awards, the film made $5.5 million in revenue from the US and Canada, one of the largest Best Picture bumps since Slumdog Millionaire in 2009 and the largest in ten years.[99]
On 5 February, Parasite became the first Korean film in nearly 15 years to surpass one million filmgoers in Japan.[100] In the UK, it broke the record for the opening weekend of a non-English-language film, making £1.4 million ($1.8 million) including previews over its debut weekend, from 135 screens,[101] and in Australia it took in over $1.9 million.[102] In the weekend after its Oscars wins, it made $12.8 million from 43 countries, bringing its international total to $161 million and its global running gross to over the $200 million mark.[103]
Following its Academy Awards success, Parasite received significant rescreening, generating significant further revenue. The Associated Press reported the biggest "Oscar effect" since 2001 after Gladiator won Best Picture. Parasite's box office revenue increased by more than 230% compared to the prior week, grossing $2.15 million in a single day. It also ranked No. 1 in Japan, the first Korean film to do so in 15 years.[104] The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia announced that $749K worth of cinema tickets were sold in a single weekend, with the film reentering the top 10 at the local box office more than six months after it debuted in Australian cinemas. Parasite also surged back to fourth place in South Korea's box office by attracting more than 80,000 viewers.[105][106]
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Parasite has an approval rating of 99% based on 482 reviews, with an average rating of 9.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft."[107] On Metacritic, 56 compiled reviews from critics were identified as positive, giving the film a weighted average score of 97 out of 100.[108] On the same site, Parasite was rated the best film of 2019[109][110] and ranked 7th among the films with the highest scores of the decade.[111] As of 20 November 2021, it is the 48th-highest-rated film of all time on the website.[112]
Writing for The New York Times, A. O. Scott called the film "wildly entertaining, the kind of smart, generous, aesthetically energized movie that obliterates the tired distinctions between art films and popcorn movies".[113] Bilge Ebiri of Vulture magazine wrote that Parasite is "a work that is itself in a state of constant, agitated transformation—a nerve-racking masterpiece whose spell lingers long after its haunting final image".[114] In his five-star review, Dave Calhoun of Time Out praised the film's social commentary, calling the work "surprising and fully gripping from beginning to end, full of big bangs and small wonders".[115] Variety's Jessica Kiang called the film "a wild, wild ride", writing that "Bong is back and on brilliant form, but he is unmistakably, roaringly furious, and it registers because the target is so deserving, so enormous, so 2019: Parasite is a tick fat with the bitter blood of class rage".[116] Joshua Rivera of GQ gave a glowing review and declared Parasite possibly one of the best films of 2019.[117]
Michael Wood writing for the London Review of Books found its following a theme of class consciousness to be consistent with Snowpiercer: "The theme of social ascent, or social difference as a landscape, could hardly be more obvious, but we are beginning to get the movie's idea: not to avoid stereotypes but to keep crashing into them".[118] UK film website TheShiznit awarded it an A, noting "it makes you wonder what the inflection point for such behaviour is in a culture where manners and servitude are drilled into those who can't afford not to have them".[119] The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd awarded the film an A−, praising the fun and surprising twists.[120]
Parasite ranked first in a survey by IndieWire of over 300 critics, in the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Film categories.[121] It also appeared on over 240 critics' year-end top-ten lists, including 77 who ranked it first.[109]
