In focusing on the global box office, it’s impossible to ignore the success of “Exhuma.” Hailing from South Korea, the film made a huge splash earlier this year in its native country and found some success elsewhere across the world. Most of all, this film helped lift the South Korean box office in a major way, becoming one of the country’s biggest hits since the pandemic began. It topped the charts there for a staggering seven weekends in a row, selling more than 10 million tickets by the end of March (which is what makes a movie a “blockbuster” there).

When we consider that South Korea has a population of around 50 million, the number of tickets sold at this point is downright staggering. To date, the film has made nearly $83 million in the country. Globally, it has pulled in a very impressive $95 million in total. It had a decent run in the U.S. on arthouse screens in March, posting a per-screen average of more than $20,000 from just three screens when it opened domestically.

Directed by Jang Jae-hyun, the supernatural horror film focuses on the investigation into the cause of a disturbing illness that affects only the firstborn children of each generation of a family. As more countries continue to screen the film as the year rolls on, it’s very likely to cross the $100 million mark before all’s said and done. That does a lot to help lift the global box office.

So often, there is a focus on domestic box office numbers. Yes, the U.S. is one of the biggest moviegoing nations in the world, right alongside China. But it’s important to look at the global theatrical marketplace, focusing on movies outside of Hollywood. What we have here is an original, buzzy horror-thriller that has found a great deal of acclaim and commercial success. That’s worth celebrating.