Memories Of Murder, the second film by director Bong Joon-ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite), has become a major success at the South Korean box-office, holding off strong competition from X2: X-Men United to remain at number 1 in its second week.

Released on April 25, Memories Of Murder has grossed $8.2m in eleven days, with strong word of mouth pushing its May 3-4 gross up 18% on the previous weekend.

The black comedy, starring popular actor Song Kang-ho (JSA) is based on a real-life set of serial killings in rural Korea in the 1980s which remain unsolved to this day. Critics have also given the film one of the warmest receptions of the year.

"With a wide profile of spectators and a strong response in regional areas as well as Seoul, we expect the film to easily pass four million admissions [$20m]," says the film's distributor and international sales agent CJ Entertainment. This is the second major hit of the year for CJ, after My Tutor Friend grossed upwards of $25m in February and March.

The strong performance of Memories Of Murder left X2: X-Men United in the unfamiliar position of being in second position for its opening weekend. Despite an impressive 108,000 admissions in Seoul on 56 screens, the film failed to match Memories' score of 150,319 admissions on 60 screens. Nationwide, X2 has grossed $2.6m in five days.