South Korea The Admiral: Roaring Currents returned 11.8× its production cost, earning $112.2M against a $9.5M budget — one of the highest-return South Korea films in our catalog.
Synopsis
명량
“12 ships against a fleet of 330.”
The film mainly follows the famous 1597 Battle of Myeongryang during the Japanese invasion of Korea 1592-1598, where the iconic Joseon admiral Yi Sun-sin managed to destroy a total of 133 Japanese warships with only 13 ships remaining in his command. The battle, which took place in the Myeongryang Strait off the southwest coast of the Korean Peninsula, is considered one of the greatest victories of Yi.
Audience Engagement
255 audience reviews — more than 94% of South Korea films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 83th percentile among South Korea films.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 6m runtime, production spent $75K per minute on screen and earned $890K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Admiral: Roaring Currents. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
War + Action in South Korea
16 South Korea titles in our catalog blend the War and Action genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Admiral: Roaring Currents itself).
The 2013–2015 South Korea Window
The Admiral: Roaring Currents holds position #86 of 208 South Korea films in the 2013–2015 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2010s South Korea Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2010s in South Korea, 719 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Admiral: Roaring Currents premiered alongside 71 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 71 other South Korea films in 2014.
The 622nd South Korea title from South Korea we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our South Korea catalog contains 1,397 titles in total (931 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Admiral: Roaring Currents, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- battleship · 5
- naval warfare · 5
- korean navy · 5
- yi sun-sin · 2
- imjin war · 2
- battle of myeongryang · 1
- 16th century · 11
- japanese invasion of korea · 8
- navy · 6
- based on true story · 98
- biography · 75
- joseon dynasty · 42
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #573 of 1,397 South Korea films indexed here (59th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.2 points above the South Korea average of 6.9/10.
Among South Korea War productions specifically: #20 of 35 (top 57%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | South Korea |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Korean |
| Spoken Languages | Korean, Japanese |
| Production Companies | Big Stone Pictures, CJ Entertainment |
| Runtime | 2h 6m |
| Release Date | July 30, 2014 |
| IMDb | tt3541262 |
| Official Site | www.cj-entertainment.com |