Bong Joon-ho's Cannes hit The Host is breaking box-office recordsin Korea, taking theopening week record with more than 2.6m admissions, and the highestsingle-day admissions with 790,000 on Saturday, July 29.

The previous record for opening week was held by Typhoon with 1.8m admissionslast year, opening on 540 screens; the highest single-day admissions record waspreviously 590,000 - held by 2004's watershed hit Taegukgi which eventually wentover 11m admissions.

Local distributor Showbox opened the creature thrilleron a record 620 screens and saw The Host leapover the 1m admissions mark on its third day - another record.

Industry watchers agree that if the trend keeps up The Host could clear the 10m admissions barrier within its thirdweek - something it took Taegukgi39 days to do, and rival all-time hit KingAnd The Clown with its 12 million admissions.

The film is scheduled for release on 250 screens in Japan on Sept 2. News ofits successful local debut is reportedly spurring demands for more prints andthe number of screens looks to go up in the next few days.

Also slated for a North American debut at the Toronto International FilmFestival, The Host has a US release to followthrough Magnolia.

The Host mixes CGI from The Orphanage (which worked on Hellboy) withhuman drama as a dysfunctional family tracks down the Han River mutant that has abducted their young girl.

Kang Woo-suk's nationalistic intrigue Hanbando tooksecond place this past weekend, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest which,in its fourth week, has accumulated a total of 4.2m admissions.